ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some aspects of the quandary in terms of how English writers responded in print to the Battle of Waterloo. The story of Waterloo was told many times after the event, from many points of view. The Battle of Waterloo in 1815 was an occasion conveniently transformed into legendary status through poetry, a medium that sometimes glorifies heroism while at other times lamenting suffering, and occasionally both. The chapter examines how the tripartite sequence was shaped into poetic form, depending on each poet’s relative perspective and attitude to war. The Battle of Waterloo produced a consolidation of the British Empire, and the inception of the American Empire as French control of its own colonies weakened. In form, interestingly, two modes of poetry commonly adopted in the poems of Waterloo are among the most rhythmically regular, the ballad and Spenserian stanzas.
