"Vain hope! The day its gray discloses,
Already morning breezes blow,
Already bend the eastern roses,
As fresh as Ingeborg's can glow;
The winged songsters mount and twitter
(The thoughtless throng!) along the sky,
And life starts forth, and billows glitter,
And far the shades and lover fly.
* * * * *
"Farewell, beloved: till some longer
And fairer eve we meet again.
By one kiss on thy brow the stronger
Let me depart--thy lips, once, then!
Sleep now and dream of me, and waken
When mid-day comes, and faithful tell
The hours as I yearn forsaken,
And sigh as I! Farewell, farewell!"[38]
[38] Translation of L. A. Sherman, Ph.D. Boston, 1878.
The two following cantos, entitled "The Parting" and "Ingeborg's
Lament," though liable to the same criticism as their predecessor, are,
with all their sentimental effusiveness, beautiful. No lover, I fancy,
ever found them redundant, overstrained, spoiled by the lavish splendor
of their imagery.
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