Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

Was génerated, is not here in Heaven,

But down, down, down at the other side of the Earth,
Dówn in the depths of Hell, for ever there
Condemned by the unchangeable decree
Óf the Allmérciful, to writhe in torment."
He said, or seemed to say; with horror struck

I shriéked, methought, and swooned, and know no more.
TROMPETER - SCHLOESSCHEN, DRESDEN, June 11, 1854.

SECOND THOUGHTS.

By a shallow, púrling streámlet,
Sát a lovely maiden weéping:

"Mén are fálse; I always thought so;
Nów, alás! at lást I know it.

"Break, tough heart; why thrób on longer
Mócked, forsáken ánd despairing?

In this brook here I would drówn me

Wére there bút enough of water."

Bý a deep and rápid ríver

Néxt day sits the weeping maiden,

Eyes the flood a while, then shúddering

Ríses and away walks slówly:

"Mén are false; I always thought so;
Nów, alás! at lást, I knów it.

Néxt time thát a mán deceives me

Í 'll know where to find deep water." TROMPETER - SCHLOESSCHEN, DRESDEN, June 8, 1854.

"WHAT dóg is thát, Sir, tell me, pray,
That by my side the livelong day,
Where'ér I go up, down, left, right
Trots steady while the sun shines bright,
But when the sky begins to lower
And gathering clouds portend a shower,
Sneaks prúdent off, and far away
Liés in safe shelter till Sol's ray
Breaks out once more on hill and plain,
When ló! he 's at my side again?"

"Your comrade of the sunny ray,

That leaves you on a cloudy day,
Packs up his tráps and runs away
I'd not my time hair-splitting spend
Must be your shadow or

your friend."

Walking from BERTRICH to MEHREN, in the EIFEL (RHENISH PRUSSIA); Octob. 31, 1854.

"IF well thou wouldst get through this troublesome world,”

Said once a dying father to his son

Who at his bedside weeping asked his counsel,
“Thou múst to these two principal points attend:
First, thou must never dare to wear thy shoes
With broad, square toes while narrow-pointed shoes
Are áll the fashion. Second, thou must never

Assért God's unity when all around

[ocr errors]

Maintain he 's triune. Thése are the two points
On which especially thy fortune hinges.
"But if my neighbours are among themselves
Divided on these points, and some their shoes
Wear square-toed and maintain God's unity,
While some their shoes wear with long narrow toes
And swear that God was never but triúne,

What thén, dear father? how am I to judge?"
"Hóld with the strongest party, for the strongest
Has always right. If balanced are the parties,
Espécially if they wage civil war

Against each other, thou art free to use
The liberty which honest men acquire

When knáves fall oút, and if thou pleasest wear
Thy shoés even round-toed and declare thy faith
Either in nóne or in a dual God."

This said, the wise old man hiccup'd and died;
And the son, éver from that day forth moulding
Both shoes and creed according to the counsel,
Lived hónored and respected, rose to wealth
And power and dignity and on his deathbed
Léft to his son again the talisman.

Walking from ST. GALL to SCHWELLBRUNN in CANTON APPENZELL, Sept. 15, 1854.

ANOTHER and another and another

And still another sunset and sunrise,

The same yet different, different yet the same,
Seen by me now in my declining years

As in my early childhood, youth and manhood;
And by my parents and my parents' parents,
And by the parents of my parents' parents,
And by their parents counted back for ever,
Seén, all their lives long, even as now by me;
And by my children and my childrens' children
And by the children of my childrens' children
And by their children counted on for ever
Still to be seen as even now seen by me;

Clear and bright sometimes, sómetimes dark and clouded
But still the same sunsetting and sunrise;

The same for ever to the never ending

Líne of obsérvers, to the same observer

Through all the changes of his life the same:

Sunsétting and sunrising and sunsetting,

And then again sunrising and sunsetting,
Sunrising and sunsétting evermore.

HEIDELBERG, Octob. 25, 1854.

"GET úp, fool, from your bended knee;
Gód has no eyes and cannot see."
"But men have eyes and see me kneel;
To kneel to God is quite genteel.”
"Then kneel away, but don't grimace;
An úgly thing 's a lóng-drawn face."
"I bég excuse; it's so they paint
Madónna, Magdalen and saint."
"At least your óratory spare,

The wheedling rhétoric you call prayer;
Or for the Gód blush, who, to do

What 's right, needs to be coaxed by you."
"My rhétoric were indeed misplaced,
Of good breath a mere wanton waste,
Hád my by-standing friends no ear
The humble, suppliant voice to hear,
In which I let th' Omniscient know
What we think of him here below,
And hów, if he 'd few blunders make,
Mé for his counsellor he should take,
And, in all things requiring nice

Discrimination, my advice

Exáctly following, hímself spare
Responsibility and care,

« PredošláPokračovať »