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82 DecisiveVictories Dream of both marshal and author the same, One big battle to end it, one big book: Cannae,Austerlitz, Don Juan, War and Peace, Pearl Harbor, Don Quixote, final claim On the age, at least for those who mistook A Pyrrhic triumph for the Golden Fleece; A day’s win for the campaign; one novel For the “voice of a whole generation.” Hannibal seized his day, but failed at last, Troubled down like Fitzgerald, Poe, and Melville. You can grab for praise, for prime position, But praise and glory simmer away fast. And yet, though he pissed it all away, Byron Still intrigues us, as does Napoleon. ...

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