Category Archives: Battle of Lodi


Julia Augusta Maynard: “The Battle of Lodi”

Excerpt, “A Metrical History of the Life and Times of Napoleon Bonaparte: A Collection of Poems and Songs. Many from Obscure and Anonymous Sources, Selected and Arranged with Introductory Notes and Connective Narrative.” William J. Hillis. 1896.

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The Battle of Lodi

10 May, 1796

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THE BATTLE OF LODI

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The signals giv’n! Impatient neigh

The snorting chargers at the cry

Which calls proud Austria forth today,

To “charge with all her chivalry.”

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Hark to the deep and muffled drum!

Announcing death so near at hand;

The foe! The foe! They onward come;

May heaven uphold the Austrian band!

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Mark ye, the eagle standards wave

Above the torrent’s crimson tide!

Oh! Mark ye how for glory’s grave

Those gallant horsemen forward ride!

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Two despots meet; the one by right

Defends what ages make his own;

The other, in the pride of might,

Stands forth all-conquering and alone.

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This last, upon the battle-field,

With eye which beams with living fire,

Arm’d with a dread and puissant shield,

Defies the German’s wildest ire.

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Yon bridge, where slaughter yet unsafe,

Still revels in its gory bed,

Groans now beneath the growing weight

Of living—dying—and of dead.

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’T is over! And France foredoom’d to sway

Where’er her flashing eagle shone,

Hears the proud victor named that day

In victory’s shout—“Napoleon!”