Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE FALL OF D'ASSAS; A BALLAD OF FRANCE, by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE FALL OF D'ASSAS; A BALLAD OF FRANCE, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Alone through gloomy forest-shades
Last Line: "auvergne, auvergne! The foe!"
Alternate Author Name(s): Browne, Felicia Dorothea
Subject(s): Death; France; Dead, The


ALONE through gloomy forest-shades
A soldier went by night;
No moonbeam pierced the dusky glades,
No star shed guiding light.

Yet on his vigil's midnight round
The youth all cheerly passed;
Unchecked by aught of boding sound
That muttered in the blast.

Where were his thoughts that lonely hour?
-- In his far home, perchance;
His father's hall, his mother's bower,
Midst the gay vines of France:

Wandering from battles lost and won,
To hear and bless again
The rolling of the wide Garonne,
Or murmur of the Seine.

Hush! hark! -- did stealing steps go by?
Came not faint whispers near?
No! the wild wind hath many a sigh,
Amidst the foliage sere.

Hark, yet again! -- and from his hand,
What grasp hath wrenched the blade?
-- Oh, single midst a hostile band,
Young soldier! thou'rt betrayed!

"Silence!" in under-tones they cry --
"No whisper -- not a breath!
The sound that warns thy comrades nigh
Shall sentence thee to death."

Still, at the bayonet's point he stood,
And strong to meet the blow;
And shouted, midst his rushing blood,
"Arm, arm, Auvergne! the foe!"

The stir, the tramp, the bugle-call --
He heard their tumults grow;
And sent his dying voice through all --
"Auvergne, Auvergne! the foe!"





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