Arnold Von Winkelried Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: AAABBCCAA DDEEFF AAGGHHAAIIJJAAKKAA LLMMAAAAAANNAA OOAAAAAABBPP AAQQRRSSTTUU FFAAVVAAPP WWAAIIXX PP

iedA
In arms the Austrian phalanx stoodA
A living wall a human woodA
A wall where every conscious stoneB
Seemed to its kindred thousands grownB
A rampart all assaults to bearC
Till time to dust their frames should wearC
So still so dense the Austrians stoodA
A living wall a human woodA
-
Impregnable their front appearsD
All horrent with projected spearsD
Whose polished points before them shineE
From flank to flank one brilliant lineE
Bright as the breakers' splendours runF
Along the billows to the sunF
-
Opposed to these a hovering bandA
Contended for their fatherlandA
Peasants whose new found strength had brokeG
From manly necks the ignoble yokeG
And beat their fetters into swordsH
On equal terms to fight their lordsH
And what insurgent rage had gainedA
In many a mortal fray maintainedA
Marshalled once more at Freedom's callI
They came to conquer or to fallI
Where he who conquered he who fellJ
Was deemed a dead or living TellJ
Such virtue had that patriot breathedA
So to the soil his soul bequeathedA
That wheresoe'er his arrows flewK
Heroes in his own likeness grewK
And warriors sprang from every sodA
Which his awakening footstep trodA
-
And now the work of life and deathL
Hung on the passing of a breathL
The fire of conflict burned withinM
The battle trembled to beginM
Yet while the Austrians held their groundA
Point for attack was nowhere foundA
Where'er the impatient Switzers gazedA
The unbroken line of lances blazedA
That line 'twere suicide to meetA
And perish at their tyrant's feetA
How could they rest within their gravesN
And leave their homes the homes of slavesN
Would not they feel their children treadA
With clanging chains above their headA
-
It must not be this day this hourO
Annihilates the invader's powerO
All Switzerland is in the fieldA
She will not fly she cannot yieldA
She must not fall her better fateA
Here gives her an immortal dateA
Few were the numbers she could boastA
But every freeman was a hostA
And felt as 'twere a secret knownB
That one should turn the scale aloneB
While each unto himself was heP
On whose sole arm hung victoryP
-
It did depend on one indeedA
Behold him Arnold WinkelriedA
There sounds not to the trump of fameQ
The echo of a nobler nameQ
Unmarked he stood amid the throngR
In rumination deep and longR
Till you might see with sudden graceS
The very thought come o'er his faceS
And by the motion of his formT
Anticipate the bursting stormT
And by the uplifting of his browU
Tell where the bolt would strike and howU
-
But 'twas no sooner thought than doneF
The field was in a moment wonF
'Make way for liberty ' he criedA
Then ran with arms extended wideA
As if his dearest friend to claspV
Ten spears he swept within his graspV
'Make way for liberty ' he criedA
Their keen points crossed from side to sideA
He bowed amidst them like a treeP
And thus made way for libertyP
-
Swift to the breach his comrades flyW
'Make way for liberty ' they cryW
And through the Austrian phalanx dartA
As rushed the spears through Arnold's heartA
While instantaneous as his fallI
Rout ruin panic seized them allI
An earthquake could not overthrowX
A city with a surer blowX
-
Thus Switzerland again was freeP
Thus Death made way for LibertyP

James Montgomery



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