“Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte”

I was struck by the complexity of Lord Byron’s “Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte”.  Rather than simply condemning Napoleon, Byron poem works through Napoleon’s rise and fall.  Moreover, Byron seems to evaluate the psychology of Napoleon as he asks difficult questions about what its like to be at the top of world and then the very bottom.  Byron begins the ode by pointing out the contrast of Napoleon’s before and after:

                       

            'Tis done---but yesterday a King!

                 And armed with Kings to strive---

                        And now thou art a nameless thing:

                 So abject---yet alive!

Byron repeatedly calls our attention back to the extremity of Napoleon’s fall; even paralleling Napoleon to Lucifer. Further, Byron compares Napoleon to other historical figures that experienced falls from power such as Milo, Sylla, Charles I, and Prometheus.  However as he compares Napoleon to these men, Byron makes an interesting assertion.  He suggests that Napoleon’s fall is so extreme that surely no man who knew Napoleon’s fate would ever make the same mistakes and experience such a fall.  

                       

                         To shame the world again---

                        But who would soar the solar height,

                        To set in such a starless night?

The most important aspect of this ode, I believe, is Byron’s intent to discover what could have caused Napoleon (or really any man) to sacrifice everything—in summary, he is asking why Napoleon needed more power when he already had so much.  Two of the last stanzas speak to this effect:

There was a day---there was an hour,

     While earth was Gaul's---Gaul thine---

When that immeasurable power

     Unsated to resign

Had been an act of purer fame

Than gathers round Marengo's name

     And gilded thy decline,

Through the long twilight of all time,

Despite some passing clouds of crime.

But thou forsooth must be a King

     And don the purple vest,

As if that foolish robe could wring

     Remembrance from thy breast

Where is that faded garment? where

The gewgaws thou wert fond to wear,

     The star, the string, the crest?

Vain froward child of Empire! say,

Are all thy playthings snatched away?

Here, Byron identifies one of man’s greatest flaws (and surely Napoleon’s greatest)—the inability to be satisfied.  Byron suggests that Napoleon’s need to be a “king” and where the “purple vest” is the reason for his fall.  To further his point, Byron asks “where is that faded garment”.  This question points out how Napoleon’s choice to seek further power was his end and ultimately a pointless endeavor because as a prisoner the “purple robe” does him no good.