Axis & Allies - damowords

Messengers
France rolls restless beneath an eagleʹs wing,
Graceful in flight as the soaring sonnet,
Rippling oer the realms of a Bourbon king
Imposed by the great British bayonet;
Oft times sighing
Before the memory
Of her eagles flying throʹ stunning victory.
With hawkish eyes it spies the prey,
Swoops down from Appenine peak,
Throʹ ocean clouds bedapplʹd grey,
His elegant wings spread sleek ‐
Til with one hurried, flurried fray
Dove gored by bloody beak,
Then clutchʹd in an imperious talon,
High oer the lush Mediterranean.
The little island emperor
Came brooding into view,
Sea‐lockʹd on the rock of Elba,
Seething up to the blue ‐
Saw doveʹs death‐fall, its scroll unrollʹd, there scrawlʹd was
ʹWaterloo.ʹ
Elba
1815
Imperial Return
Three sailing ships swept thro a sunsunk sea
To drift amid a mountain‐armourʹd bay,
Flying flags studded with the honeybee ‐
As anchors splash how calmly there they lay;
Unsheathʹd the sword!
One thousand men of war
Rejoice as they are rowʹd toward the stony shore.
Stoic upon the scything stern
Stood the mortal soul of France,
Whose soldiers sing for his return
In an awesome reverence ‐
With choric voice & eyes that burn
Commands them to advance,
Pinching each rough cheek as they pass him by,
Adoring adulation makes them fly.
They marchʹd a musical parade
Cheerʹd by the underclass,
While north they made a white cockade
Silently watchʹd them pass,
Then raced away to warn the royalists who slept in Grasse.
Cannes
March 2nd 1815