THE winter night is cold and drear, Along the river's sullen flow; The cruel frost is camping here -- The air has living blades of snow. Look! pushing from the icy strand, With ensigns freezing in the air, There sails a small but mighty band, Across the dang'rous Delaware. Oh, wherefore, soldiers, would you fight The bayonets of a winter storm? In truth it were a better night For blazing fire and blankets warm! We seek to trap a foreign foe, Who fill themselves with stolen fare; We carry freedom as we go Across the storm-swept Delaware! The night is full of lusty cheer Within the Hessians' merry camp; And faint and fainter on the ear Doth fall the heedless sentry's tramp. O hirelings, this new nation's rage Is something 't is not well to dare; You are not fitted to engage These men from o'er the Delaware! A rush -- a shout -- a clarion call, Salute the early morning's gray: Now, roused invaders, yield or fall: The refuge-land has won the day! Soon shall the glorious news be hurled Wherever men have wrongs to bear; For freedom's torch illumes the world, And God has crossed the Delaware! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DOMESDAY BOOK: THE JURY DELIBERATES by EDGAR LEE MASTERS TO A PRIZE BIRD by MARIANNE MOORE THE MARRIAGE OF HEAVEN AND HELL by WILLIAM BLAKE ELEGY: 16. ON HIS MISTRESS by JOHN DONNE GOD'S GRANDEUR by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS A SEA-SPELL (FOR A PICTURE) by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI ASTROPHEL AND STELLA: 31 by PHILIP SIDNEY THE KING'S DAUGHTER by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE THE PLEASURES OF IMAGINATION; A POEM. ENLARGED VERSION: BOOK 2 by MARK AKENSIDE |