Page:Poems that every child should know (ed. Burt, 1904).djvu/335

Rh Whose polished points before them shine,

From flank to flank, one brilliant line,

Bright as the breakers' splendours run

Along the billows to the sun.

Opposed to these a hovering band

Contended for their fatherland;

Peasants, whose new-found strength had broke

From manly necks the ignoble yoke,

And beat their fetters into swords,

On equal terms to fight their lords;

And what insurgent rage had gained,

In many a mortal fray maintained;

Marshalled, once more, at Freedom's call,

They came to conquer or to fall,

Where he who conquered, he who fell,

Was deemed a dead or living Tell,

Such virtue had that patriot breathed,

So to the soil his soul bequeathed,

That wheresoe'er his arrows flew,

Heroes in his own likeness grew,

And warriors sprang from every sod,

Which his awakening footstep trod.

And now the work of life and death

Hung on the passing of a breath;

The fire of conflict burned within,

The battle trembled to begin;

Yet, while the Austrians held their ground,

Point for attack was nowhere found;

Where'er the impatient Switzers gazed,

The unbroken line of lances blazed;