The Peasant’s Unarmed Police. Poem by John Banim

[Note: Air--``Rich and rare.'']

Not by fear, or terror, or pain,
So much as by union and love, we reign,
And good resolution, which fast doth bind,
All the land over, good men in one mind.

Good resolve, that has not been made
By signs or in whispers, like people afraid,
But that of itself all minds will gripe,
When the cause is good, and the time is ripe.

And none pay us, and no oaths we swear,
And nor sword nor gun in our hands we bear;
And yet our duties we will go through,
And them we are able, as willing, to do.

Our duty is, like an army brave,
From sorrow and sin the land to save,
And though like an army we go not about,
Our strength, in its spirit, we have sent out.

'Tis on the hill, and 'tis in the vale,
And o'er crime and o'er bloodshed it shall prevail--
So we watch the land, like her mountains old,
With footing as firm, and front as bold!