Feelings Of The Tyrolese

Composed 1809.--Published 1809[A]

The Land we from our fathers had in trust, And to our children will transmit, or die: This is our maxim, this our piety; And God and Nature say that it is just. That which we would perform in arms--we must! We read the dictate in the infant's eye; In the wife's smile; and in the placid sky; And, at our feet, amid the silent dust Of them that were before us.--Sing aloud Old songs, the precious music of the heart! Give, herds and flocks, your voices to the wind! While we go forth, a self-devoted crowd, With weapons grasped in fearless hands, to assert Our virtue, and to vindicate mankind.

VARIANTS:

1837.

With weapons in the fearless hand, 1809.