 | Sonnets in Switzerland and Italy |  |
34
ARNOLD VON WINKELRIED
AT STANZ
How could the love of fatherland so placed
Not grow to be a passion?—hither free
Sang the loud brooks, and every budding tree
In yon grange-orchard on to freedom raced
When April touched the meadows, and in haste
The blossom reddened. Here the boy could see
How Spring from Winter claimed its liberty,
How Winter still with chains the Summer chased.
Not grow to be a passion?—hither free
Sang the loud brooks, and every budding tree
In yon grange-orchard on to freedom raced
When April touched the meadows, and in haste
The blossom reddened. Here the boy could see
How Spring from Winter claimed its liberty,
How Winter still with chains the Summer chased.
And he?—his heart was filled with hope of spring:
Spring, and the summer of content to come,
With fruit of patriot good for far-off years;
And so at Sempach, when the tyrant ring
Withstood, he gathered to his breast the spears,
And fell for God, for Liberty and Home.
Spring, and the summer of content to come,
With fruit of patriot good for far-off years;
And so at Sempach, when the tyrant ring
Withstood, he gathered to his breast the spears,
And fell for God, for Liberty and Home.
| Sonnets in Switzerland and Italy | |