Arnold Von Winkelried Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: AAABBCCAA DDEEFF AAGGHHAAIIJJAAKKAA LLMMAAAAAANNAA OOAAAAAABBPP AAQQRRSSTTUU FFAAVVAAPP WWAAIIXX PPied | A |
In arms the Austrian phalanx stood | A |
A living wall a human wood | A |
A wall where every conscious stone | B |
Seemed to its kindred thousands grown | B |
A rampart all assaults to bear | C |
Till time to dust their frames should wear | C |
So still so dense the Austrians stood | A |
A living wall a human wood | A |
- | |
Impregnable their front appears | D |
All horrent with projected spears | D |
Whose polished points before them shine | E |
From flank to flank one brilliant line | E |
Bright as the breakers' splendours run | F |
Along the billows to the sun | F |
- | |
Opposed to these a hovering band | A |
Contended for their fatherland | A |
Peasants whose new found strength had broke | G |
From manly necks the ignoble yoke | G |
And beat their fetters into swords | H |
On equal terms to fight their lords | H |
And what insurgent rage had gained | A |
In many a mortal fray maintained | A |
Marshalled once more at Freedom's call | I |
They came to conquer or to fall | I |
Where he who conquered he who fell | J |
Was deemed a dead or living Tell | J |
Such virtue had that patriot breathed | A |
So to the soil his soul bequeathed | A |
That wheresoe'er his arrows flew | K |
Heroes in his own likeness grew | K |
And warriors sprang from every sod | A |
Which his awakening footstep trod | A |
- | |
And now the work of life and death | L |
Hung on the passing of a breath | L |
The fire of conflict burned within | M |
The battle trembled to begin | M |
Yet while the Austrians held their ground | A |
Point for attack was nowhere found | A |
Where'er the impatient Switzers gazed | A |
The unbroken line of lances blazed | A |
That line 'twere suicide to meet | A |
And perish at their tyrant's feet | A |
How could they rest within their graves | N |
And leave their homes the homes of slaves | N |
Would not they feel their children tread | A |
With clanging chains above their head | A |
- | |
It must not be this day this hour | O |
Annihilates the invader's power | O |
All Switzerland is in the field | A |
She will not fly she cannot yield | A |
She must not fall her better fate | A |
Here gives her an immortal date | A |
Few were the numbers she could boast | A |
But every freeman was a host | A |
And felt as 'twere a secret known | B |
That one should turn the scale alone | B |
While each unto himself was he | P |
On whose sole arm hung victory | P |
- | |
It did depend on one indeed | A |
Behold him Arnold Winkelried | A |
There sounds not to the trump of fame | Q |
The echo of a nobler name | Q |
Unmarked he stood amid the throng | R |
In rumination deep and long | R |
Till you might see with sudden grace | S |
The very thought come o'er his face | S |
And by the motion of his form | T |
Anticipate the bursting storm | T |
And by the uplifting of his brow | U |
Tell where the bolt would strike and how | U |
- | |
But 'twas no sooner thought than done | F |
The field was in a moment won | F |
'Make way for liberty ' he cried | A |
Then ran with arms extended wide | A |
As if his dearest friend to clasp | V |
Ten spears he swept within his grasp | V |
'Make way for liberty ' he cried | A |
Their keen points crossed from side to side | A |
He bowed amidst them like a tree | P |
And thus made way for liberty | P |
- | |
Swift to the breach his comrades fly | W |
'Make way for liberty ' they cry | W |
And through the Austrian phalanx dart | A |
As rushed the spears through Arnold's heart | A |
While instantaneous as his fall | I |
Rout ruin panic seized them all | I |
An earthquake could not overthrow | X |
A city with a surer blow | X |
- | |
Thus Switzerland again was free | P |
Thus Death made way for Liberty | P |
James Montgomery
(1)
Poem topics: , Print This Poem , Rhyme Scheme
Submit Spanish Translation
Submit German Translation
Submit French Translation
Write your comment about Arnold Von Winkelried poem by James Montgomery
Best Poems of James Montgomery