Josephine Napoleon (1763 - 1814) Poem by Rm. Shanmugam Chettiar

‘You shall be crowned the Queen of France and sit
On the throne by the side your husband.'
Said the priest astrologer when she was seven.
Josephine was then just a maid servant,
And was borne by a maid servant to her master.
She was given away by her father
To a French noble Viscount Aleksander
Beauharnais, who married her in ‘79.1

Josephine in due course bore him a son
And a daughter. In French revolution
In '89, her husband was guillotined
And Josephine was thrown into prison.
Paul Barras, a French General fell for her,
Secured her release and made her his mistress.
However, she failed to be his trustworthy.
She received other Generals also. 2

Her eye fell on Napoleon Bonaparte,
A promising young man still unmarried.
The widow invited Napoleon for lunch,
Where he fell completely under her spell.
They became lovers and her attention
Was diverted from Barras to his relief.
She shed crocodile tears to Paul Barras
And married Napoleon in '96. 3

Josephine did not love Napoleon as much
As he loved her and it took her years
Before she warmed well to his affection.
He was mad of her and kept a picture
Of her in his pocket to kiss it now and then.
Not a beauty and well past her prime age,
If she bewitched him, it's her hypnotic charm.
His love letters to her are the world famous.4

While Napoleon languished in the battlefield,
Josephine lived in Paris, enjoying herself.
She wanted him for social recognition
And he wanted her for her hypnotic face.
He was in dark about her amorous
Escapades with her new lover Charles.
He realized that she had no love for him
And gathered himself to war and nation. 5

She was the first wife of Napoleon
And as well the first empress of French
When he became emperor in 1799.
Not trusted but loved, she was retained.
Napoleon made up his mind to divorce her
And marry a princess to bore him an heir.
He divorced her in the year eighteen nine
And married Marie Louise, who bore him a son.6

Josephine was let to leave the place
With dignity with all jewels and fortunes
That she kept in the tenure of queenship.
She was not disturbed from separation.
She lost the sympathy of her children
For her debauchery and self-centeredness.
Napoleon was dethroned and exiled.
Josephine died, uttering napoleon's name. 7
19.06.2020