Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Italy: Vols. XI–XIII. 1876–79.

Piedmont

Hymn of the Vaudois Mountaineers in Times of Persecution

By Felicia Hemans (1793–1835)

FOR the strength of the hills we bless thee,

Our God, our fathers’ God!

Thou hast made thy children mighty

By the touch of the mountain sod.

Thou hast fixed our ark of refuge

Where the spoiler’s foot ne’er trod;

For the strength of the hills we bless thee,

Our God, our fathers’ God!

We are watchers of a beacon

Whose light must never die;

We are guardians of an altar

Midst the silence of the sky:

The rocks yield founts of courage,

Struck forth as by thy rod;

For the strength of the hills we bless thee,

Our God, our fathers’ God!

For the dark, resounding caverns,

Where thy still, small voice is heard;

For the strong pines of the forests,

That by thy breath are stirred;

For the storms, on whose free pinions

Thy spirit walks abroad;

For the strength of the hills we bless thee,

Our God, our fathers’ God!

The royal eagle darteth

On his quarry from the heights,

And the stag that knows no master

Seeks there his wild delights;

But we, for thy communion,

Have sought the mountain sod;

For the strength of the hills we bless thee,

Our God, our fathers’ God!

The banner of the chieftain

Far, far below us waves;

The war-horse of the spearman

Cannot reach our lofty caves:

Thy dark clouds wrap the threshold

Of freedom’s last abode;

For the strength of the hills we bless thee,

Our God, our fathers’ God!

For the shadow of thy presence,

Round our camp of rock outspread;

For the stern defiles of battle,

Bearing record of our dead;

For the snows and for the torrents,

For the free hearts’ burial sod;

For the strength of the hills we bless thee,

Our God, our fathers’ God!