Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

Und über Gletschern bist du festgebannt ;

Ein Echo, das die Jagd im Morgengrau

Vom Schlaf' aufscheucht, daß Berg und Wald und Au Und Höhle dröhnen, wo's unsichtbar stand.

Sein Spiel verkündend. So urplößlich strahl',
Du hehre Macht, hervor im Siegeslauf
Durch Wolkenwust, von Klippenknauf zu Knauf,
Durch Almenhütten, durch das grüne Thal;
In dir dann jauchzen alle Alpen auf
Hier, dort und überall mit einem Mal!

3.

Gefühle der Tiroler.

„Das Land ist uns vertraut vom Ahngeschlecht:
So sei's vererbt und kost' es auch das Leben —
Den Kindern: das ist Pflicht und fromm und eben;
Natur und Gott, sie nennen es gerecht.

Wir müssen thun, was möglich, im Gefecht:
Sieh' dies Gebot im Kindesauge leben,
Von Frauenlippen, aus dem Aether schweben;
Ihr Väter selbst aus Grabesmoder sprecht

Es laut empor. · So kling' in Sangesbraus
Der alten Lieder herzliche Musik!

Einstimmen Hirt unb Heerde in den Reihen!
Ein opferwillig' Häuslein zieh'n wir aus,
Die Waffen in den Häuden, Muth im Blick,
Der Tugend treu, die Menschheit zu befreien."

4.

Was nüßt, ach! langes sittenkluges Streiten,

Das man aus „gut” und „böse” preßt mit Müh';

Was dummer Fleiß, zu höh’n die Energie

Und zu transcendentaler Ruh' zu leiten,

Daß jede Leidenschafft sich lasse reiten
Von der Vernunft in Allsuprematie:
Ist das nicht seltsam eitle Theorie,
Wenn Deutschland trop so viel Spißfindigkeiten

[blocks in formation]

AND is it among rude untutored Dales,
There, and there only, that the heart is true?
And, rising to repel or to subdue,

Is it by rocks and woods that man prevails?
Ah no! though Nature's dread protection fails,
There is a bulwark in the soul. This knew
Iberian Burghers when the sword they drew
In Zaragoza, naked to the gales

O'ER THE WIDE EARTH, ON MOUNTAIN AND ON PLAIN. 221

Of fiercely-breathing war. The truth was felt

By Palafox, and many a brave compeer,
Like him of noble birth and noble mind;
By ladies, meek-eyed women without fear;
And wanderers of the street, to whom is dealt
The bread which without industry they find.

Palafox-y-Melzi, Don Joseph (1780-1847), immortalized by his heroic defence of Saragossa in 1808-9. He was of an old Arragon family, and entered the Spanish army at an early age. In 1808, when twenty-nine years of age, he was appointed governor of Saragossa, by the people of the town, who were menaced by the French armies. He defended it with a few men, against immense odds, and compelled the French to abandon the siege, after sixty-one days attack, and the loss of thousands. Saragossa, however, was too important to lose, and Marshals Mortier and Moncy renewed the siege with a large army. Palafox (twice defeated outside) retired to the fortress as before, where the men, women, and children fought in defence, till the city was almost a heap of ruins. Typhus attacked the garrison within, while the French army assailed it from without. Palafox, smitten by the fever, had to give up the command to another, who signed a capitulation next day. He was sent a prisoner to Vincennes, and kept there for nearly five years, till the restoration of Ferdinand VII., when he was sent back on a secret mission to Madrid. In 1814 he was appointed Captain-General of Arragon; but for about thirty years-till his death in 1847-he took no part in public affairs.-ED.

[blocks in formation]

O'ER the wide earth, on mountain and on plain,
Dwells in the affections and the soul of man

A Godhead, like the universal PAN;
But more exalted, with a brighter train:
And shall his bounty be dispensed in vain,
Showered equally on city and on field,
And neither hope nor steadfast promise yield
In these usurping times of fear and pain?

Such doom awaits us. Nay, forbid it, Heaven!
We know the arduous strife, the eternal laws
To which the triumph of all good is given,
High sacrifice, and labour without pause,

Even to the death :-else wherefore should the eye
Of man converse with immortality?

[blocks in formation]

HAIL, Zaragoza! If with unwet eye
We can approach, thy sorrow to behold,
Yet is the heart not pitiless nor cold;
Such spectacle demands not tear or sigh.
These desolate remains are trophies high
Of more than martial courage in the breast
Of peaceful civic virtue: they attest
Thy matchless worth to all posterity.

Blood flowed before thy sight without remorse :
Disease consumed thy vitals; War upheaved
The ground beneath thee with volcanic force:
Dread trials! yet encountered and sustained
Till not a wreck of help or hope remained,
And law was from necessity received.*

See note to sonnet (p. 221). Saragossa surrendered February 20, 1809, after a heroic defence, which may recal the sieges of Numantia or Saguntum. Every street, almost every house, had been hotly contested; the monks, and even the women, had taken a conspicuous share in the defence; more than 40,000 bodies of both sexes and every age testified to the obstinate courage of the besieged. (See Dyer's History of Modern Europe, Vol. IV. p. 496.)-ED.

* The beginning is imitated from an Italian sonnet.

1815.

[blocks in formation]

SAY, what is Honour ?-'Tis the finest sense
Of justice which the human mind can frame,
Intent each lurking frailty to disclaim,

And guard the way of life from all offence.
Suffered or done. When lawless violence
Invades a Realm, so pressed that in the scale 1
Of perilous war her weightiest armies fail,
Honour is hopeful elevation,-whence
Glory, and triumph. Yet with politic skill
Endangered States may yield to terms unjust;
Stoop their proud heads, but not unto the dust-
A Foe's most favourite purpose to fulfil :
Happy occasions oft by self-mistrust
Are forfeited; but infamy doth kill.

[blocks in formation]

BRAVE Schill! by death delivered, take thy flight

From Prussia's timid region. Go and rest
With heroes, 'mid the islands of the Blest,
Or in the fields of empyrean light.

A meteor wert thou crossing a dark night: 2
Yet shall thy name, conspicuous and sublime,
Stand in the spacious firmament of time,
Fixed as a star: such glory is thy right.

[blocks in formation]
« ПредишнаНапред »