Classic Poem

Our country insulted
Demands quick redress.
To arms, Voltigeurs!
To the struggle we press.
From vict'ry to vict'ry,
Brave, righteous, and just,
Ours the mem'ries that cling to
Our forefathers' dust.

Defend we our farm-lands,
Our half-crumbled walls!
Defend we our sweethearts,
Our hearths and our halls!
Our dear native tongue,
Our faith keep we free!
Defend we our life,
For a people are we!

No rulers know we, save
Our time-honoured laws!
And woe to the nation
That sneers at our cause.
Our fields and our furrows,
Our woods and our streams,
Should their columns invade,
Shall entomb their vain dreams!

To our foes, the perfidious,
Be war to the knife.
Intrepid, yet duteous,
We leap to the strife.
More terrible shewing
In danger's red hour;
We know to avenge,
And unbroken our power.

List the thunderous roar
As the shot rushes by!
To our war-song heroic,
The chorus of joy.
At the ring of the musket
To the battle we fly;
Come! come to the field,
See us conquer or die.

What! we become slaves
To an alien foe?
We bear their vile trammels?
Our answer is, No!
Assistance shall reach us
From heaven's lucent arch:
Come! seize we our muskets
And “double-quick march!”