Of all power, and may any day give way

And slip from underneath, and down falls power
Amid the loúd hurrahs of those who take
The ruins to erect with them a like

Proud, tówering structure on like dunghill basis
Pérmanent perhaps a while, but sure at last
To rót and stink and ooze and slip away
From underneath, and down, as old tower fell,
Falls new tower headlong, amid like hurrahs,
Cúrses, and thanks to God, and hymns of triumph.

Thirty nine birthdays Márbach's son had counted,
Ere fár Iérne from my mother's womb
Received me first, and to his fate had bowed,
And yielded úp, resigned, his painful breath,
Ánd his eyes closed upon the sweet daylight
And his own rádiant fame, as my seventh year
By the hand toók me, and, beside the lap
Of Watts and Bárbauld placing, bade me listen
For the first time to sweéter sound than lark's
Or thróstle's song, the numbers of the poet.
Then other years came and to other laps
Léd me succéssive, and mine ear drew in
Eáger the various lore, and I grew on
To be a man, and in the busy world.

Mixed with the busiest, and toiled hard for bread,
Ánd for vile góld, alas! and rank and honor,

But néver at my busiest did I quite

Forgét my seventh year, or not now and then

At eárly mórn, late eve, or deep midnight,

Retired and áll alóne, entreat to hear

Númbers melódious Goldsmith's, Scott's or Pope's,
Spenser's or Shakespeare's, or divinest Milton's.
Late láte, and almost last, fell on mine ear

His earnest tónes whose agitated heart

In Weimar's gráve from my seventh year lay mouldering;
Láte, but not too late, cáme those earnest tones,
Nór with a lívelier Weimar voice unblended,
Nor dissonant with Maro's long loved strain,
T'adjúre me from the world and consecrate me
For éver áfter solely to the Muse;

Whose I have been since then, and whose to be
I would cease néver while my lips have power
To utter Maro's, Milton's, Schiller's name.

[CARLSRUHE, Nov. 20, 1855.]

*

OÚT of the grave I took for love thy body,
My best beloved! and búrned it tó a cínder;
Forgive me, that for love I treated thee,
As a bigot pópe for hátred treated Wicliffe.
CARLSRUHE, Nov. 17, 1855.

GO tó, that think'st of Time as of a thing
Outside, and independant of, thyself;

Thyself art Time, runn'st through thy various phases
AM, WAS, HAVE BEEN, SHALL BE and com'st to an end.
CARLSRUHE, Nov. 6, 1855.

* See DIRGE FOR THE XIII. DEC. MDCCCLII. in MY BOOK.

ADVICE.

UNLESS thy friend is wise advise him nót,
For nó man takes advice unless he 's wise;
Unless thy friend 's unwise advise him nót,
For only the unwise require advice;
And if thy friend 's unwise enough to need,
And wise enough to take, advice, advise him
Ónly in case thou 'st wise advice to give,
And for thy wise advice no thanks expéctest.
CARLSRUHE, Dec. 12, 1855.

TO JUSTINUS KERNER,

THE SUABIAN POET.

CORPOREAL dárkness failed to quench the ray
Of vision intellectual in the soul

Of Milton, Homer, or Tiresias old,

Or chill the warm pulsations of thy heart,

Ténder, imáginative, pénsive Kerner. *

Áh, what a sóng had thine been, hádst thou pitched it Móre to the subject's, léss to the monarch's ear!

WEINSBERG (WÜRTTEMBERG), Sept. 9, 1855.

* Kerner is 69 years of age, and, owing to a cataract on either eye, can scarcely see either to read or write.

AS in the printed volume every piece,

Só in the mighty úniverse itself
Évery existence, lies between two blanks.

WEINSBERG (WÜRTTEMBERG), Sept. 20, 1855.

DIE WEIBERTREUE.*

VERZEIHE, Weinsberg! schön sind deine Trümmer,
Und lieblich grün im Sommer ist dein Berg,
Doch schöner noch ist mir der Weiber Treue,
Die mitten auch in Winterkälte grün.

WEINSBERG (WÜRTTEMBERG), Sept. 4, 1855.

* The ruins of the castle of Weinsberg, on a beautiful vine - planted hill immediately outside the town, owe the name by which they are at present known, viz. Die Weibertreue, to the following legend, or, it may be, true history. In the wars between the Welfs and Hohenstauffens in the year 1140, the Hohenstauffens besieged the Welfs in the castle of Weinsberg. The Welfs, reduced to extremities, surrendered at discretion, requiring only that their women should have permission to leave the castle, taking with them as much of their most valuable possessions as they could carry on their backs. The condition having been agreed to, the women walked out, carrying the men on their backs, and thus chivalrously allowed to pass through the lines unmolested lives of the garrison and earned for the scene of the exploit the title of Die Weibertreue. Bürger has a poem, not a very good one, on the subject.

for they were

saved the

G

RECHTS steht der Aberglaube, Alles glaubend;

Der Skepticism, der gar Nichts glaubt, steht links;
Inmitten schlagen sich der Gläub'gen Schaaren
Ich schaue zu und freu' mich des Spektakels.

WEINSBERG (WÜRTTEMBERG), Sept. 14, 1855.

DER Abergläub'ge glaubt zu viel,

Der Skeptiker zu wenig,

Drum schliess' ich mich den Gläub'gen an,

Wann diese alle einig.

WEINSBERG (WÜRTTEMBERG), Sept. 14, 1855.

MUTTER.

WARUM, mein Kind, sehn'st du dich so nach Oben?

KIND.

- Auf Weiteres wird Alles hier verschoben;

Es giebt, Gottlob! kein Weiteres dort oben.

GIEBELSTADT, near WÜRZBURG, Sept. 29, 1855.