| James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902. | | | | March 16 | | Destiny | | By Emma Lazarus (1849–1887) |
| | | | The French Prince Imperial, only son of Louis Napoleon, born March 16, 1856. |
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PARIS, from throats of iron, silver, brass, | |
| Joy-thundering cannon, blent with chiming bells, | |
| And martial strains, the full-voiced pæan swells. | |
| The air is starred with flags, the chanted mass | |
| Throngs all the churches, yet the broad streets swarm | 5 |
| With glad-eyed groups who chatter, laugh, and pass, | |
| In holiday confusion, class with class. | |
| And over all the spring, the sun-floods warm! | |
| In the Imperial palace that March morn, | |
| The beautiful young mother lay and smiled; | 10 |
| For by her side just breathed the Prince, her child, | |
| Heir to an empire, to the purple born, | |
| Crowned with the Titan’s name that stirs the heart | |
| Like a blown clarion—one more Bonaparte. | | | |
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