Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Coventry Patmore, and Alfred Tennyson on Napoleon III: The Hero-Poet and Carlylean Heroics

Inventing Poetry and Pictorialism in Once a Week : A Magazine of Visual Effects

“…The specter of yet another Napoleon taking troops into other countries inspired unease throughout 1859 over a potential French invasion of Britain-as well as several poems. 21 On June 4, 1859 French forces had encountered Austrians at Magenta, Italy, and although the French "won," 4,500 French soldiers and 5,700 Austrians were killed from fighting street by street in a small village. 22 If the African hunting adventure and detailed analysis of artillery celebrate gunfire, "Magenta" juxtaposes its human cost, first by particularizing the scene and victims of pitched gunfire battles:…”