Alpine Hunter's Song Poem by Roden Berkeley Wriothesley Noel

The hunter sings, as he strides along:
Halloo!
The paths are perilous and long;
But a hunter's heart is light and strong:
He jodles, and the ice crags jodle too:
Halloo! halloo!

Hark to the clang of his iron heel!
Halloo!
He grapples granite with grip of steel;
The mountains echo to his merry peal;
He splinters, and he mounts the ice wall blue;
Halloo! halloo!

Who spies a gem from the top of a bluff?
Halloo!
A shaft hath tumbled him sure enough;
Though hunter's fare be scant and rough,
He quaffs for wine the air, the stream, the dew:
Halloo! halloo!

His seasoned frame is hard as a rock:
Halloo!
He doth indomitable mock
Lauwine, red lightning, rolling block;
He springeth over icy chasms blue:
Halloo! halloo!

He lies out under a cave by night:
Halloo!
He communeth with still starlight,
And snow-peaks in their shrouds of white:
In far ravines hoar torrents roaring go:
Halloo! halloo!

The hunter peers from a stony jag:
Halloo!
A Lammergeyer unfurls the flag
Of vans, that shadow all the crag!
He shouts! death hovers! hurls him down below!
Halloo! halloo!

And as he falls, falls in the deep:
Halloo!
With him the rocks rebounding leap;
Rouse all the demons out of their sleep,
Who laugh, as he lies cold in snow:
Halloo! halloo!