These coins that jostle on my hand do own
No single image: each name here and date
Denoting in man's consciousness and state
New change. In some, the face is clearly known,-
In others marred. The badge of that old throne
Of Kings is on the obverse; or this sign
Which says, -I France am all-lo, I am mine!�
Or else the Eagle that dared soar alone.
Even as these coins, so are these lives and years
Mixed and bewildered; yet hath each of them
No less its part in what is come to be
For France. Empire, Republic, Monarchy,-
Each clamours or keeps silence in her name,
And lives within the pulse that now is hers.