Bittersweet Barricade Day, everyone! Please forgive my poetry, I'm just Marseillaise, not Victor Hugo, Jean Prouvaire, or any of those. So, this is my tribute to Barricade Day (part one). The end is a little paragraph I wrote (from memory, so it's not very detailed because I didn't want to get things wrong and I know what's in it as a fact) as a memorial to the 93 students who gave their lives fighting for a Republic. I'm sorry, I'm just so...Sad, and yet happy too. Enjoy, and just pretend the poetry is good.
-Marseillaise
Here in this room they speak of "one day more",
Not knowing of the irony it holds.
Of opening at last the peoples' door,
Of a flag with revolution in its folds.
One day more until the bloody dawn,
One day still of hope and love and flame.
One day before the passion's all but gone,
A final day half thinking war's a game.
Confident and sure, the evening fades,
With every rebel certain that he's right.
As night darkens the hues in their cockades,
They smile grimly at tomorrow's fight.
The June day dawns, brilliant, clear, but red,
Foreshadowing the storm that's sure to kill.
The brave ones stand with ideals in their head,
But the leviathan beneath will have it's fill.
The barricades rise of tables, dreams, and stone,
Every person soon to make their choice.
But the day drags on and still they are alone,
No one will rise to free the peoples' voice.
The leader tells them not to waste their lives,
To leave them there and instead go on living.
But none step up; in them the passion thrives,
Although they know the day won't be forgiving.
But one by one the men are swiftly killed,
And naught but one will escape this demise.
The clear day's gutters, too, are slowly filled,
With blood- of students, soldiers, workers, spies.
And then it's done, and every rebel dead
Hopes and blood are clogging up the streets.
The day is ever stained a brilliant red,
A memory of triumphs- and defeats.
On June 1, 1832, the popular government leader General Lamarque died of cholera. His death caused an outrage. Four days later, on June 5, 9 students rallied, overtaking the hearse and barricading off the streets of Paris. The streets were ideal for barricades, being narrow and long with tall rowhouses on either side. Furniture, omnibusses, and even paving stones were used. The "main" barricade was on the Rue du Saint-Jaqcues, and was around twelve feet high. A smaller one was on the Rue de la Chanvrerie. The latter was made famous by it's climatic part in Victor Hugo's masterpiece, Les Miserables. The National Guard of France was called in, and the first attack began. The barricades sustained this through the night of June 5 with few casualties. However, the morning of June 6 awakened the citizens of Paris to cannonfire. The National Guard blew apart the barricades, storming them. The rebels fought bravely, but by eleven o'clock in the morning were taken over. All 93 students, on both barricades, were killed in the fighting or shot as traitors by the firing squads. 63 National Guardsmen were also killed. On June 7, the barricades were dismantled.
RIP Jean Prouvaire, Éponine, Bahorel, Gavroche, Courfeyrac, Combeferre, Feuilly, Bossuet, Joly, Grantaire, and Enjolras. We will never forget you.