Heaven helped me in sore strait,

And in a March morn's radiance wan

Turned back the edge of fate!

"My father a stout yeoman was,

And I, in childish pride,

That morning through the dew-drenched grass,

Walked gladly by his side,

"Till here he paused, with glittering steel,

A prostrate trunk to smite;

How the near woodland seemed to reel