Explore "The Colonial Mortuary Bard" by Louis Becke on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
A writer in the _Sydney Evening News_ last year gave that journal some amusing extracts from the visitors' book at Longwood, St. Helena. If the extracts are authentic copies of the original entries, they deserve to be placed on the same high plane as the following, which appeared in a Melbourne newspaper some years ago: "Our Emily was so fair That the angels envied her, And whispered in her ear, 'We will take you away on Tuesday night!"
I once considered this to be the noblest bit of mortuary verse ever written; but since reading the article in the Sydney paper I have changed my opinion, and now think it poor. Bonaparte, however, was a great subject, and even the most unintelligent mortuary verse-maker could not fail to achieve distinction when the Longwood visitors' book was given up unto him. Frenchmen, especially, figure largely. Here, for instance: "Malidiction. O grand homme! O grand Napoleon! Mais la France et toi aont venge-- Hudson Lowe est mort!"