the happiest dream.

10[14]

  The lotos flower is troubled
    By the sun's too garish gleam,
  She droops, and with folded petals
    Awaiteth the night in a dream.

  'Tis the moon has won her favor,
    His light her spirit doth wake,
  Her virgin bloom she unveileth
    All gladly for his dear sake.

  Unfolding and glowing and shining
    She yearns toward his cloudy height;
  She trembles to tears and to perfume
    With pain of her love's delight.

[Illustration: FLOWER FANTASY Train the Painting by Ludwig von
Hofmann.]

11[15]

  The Rhine's bright wave serenely
    Reflects as it passes by
  Cologne that lifts her queenly
    Cathedral towers on high.

  A picture hangs in the dome there,
    On leather with gold bedight,
  Whose beauty oft when I roam there
    Sheds hope on my troubled night.

  For cherubs and flowers are wreathing
    Our Lady with tender grace;
  Her eyes, cheeks, and lips half-breathing
    Resemble my loved one's face.

12[16]

  I am not wroth, my own lost love, although
  My heart is breaking—wroth I am not, no!
  For all thou dost in diamonds blaze, no ray
  Of light into thy heart's night finds its way.

  I saw thee in a dream. Oh, piteous sight!
  I saw thy heart all empty, all in night;
  I saw the serpent gnawing at thy heart;
  I saw how wretched, O my love, thou art!

13[17]

  When thou shalt lie, my darling, low
    In the dark grave, where they hide thee,
  Then down to thee I will surely go,
    And nestle in beside thee.

  Wildly I'll kiss and clasp thee there,
    Pale, cold, and silent lying;
  Shout, shudder, weep in dumb despair,
    Beside my dead love dying.

  The midnight calls, up rise the dead,
    And dance in airy swarms there;
  We twain quit not our earthly bed,
    I lie wrapt in your arms there.

  Up rise the dead; the Judgment-day
    To bliss or anguish calls them;
  We twain lie on as before we lay,
    And heed not what befalls them.

14[18]

  A young man loved a maiden,
    But she for another has sigh'd;
  That other, he loves another,
    And makes her at length his bride.

  The maiden marries, in anger,
    The first adventurous wight
  That chance may fling before her;
    The youth is in piteous plight.

  The story is old as ages,
    Yet happens again and again;
  The last to whom it happen'd,
    His heart is rent in twain.

15[19]

  A lonely pine is standing
    On the crest of a northern height;
  He sleeps, and a snow-wrought mantle
    Enshrouds him through the night.

  He's dreaming of a palm-tree
    Afar in a tropic land,
  That grieves alone in silence
    'Mid quivering leagues of sand.

16[20]

  My love, we were sitting together
    In a skiff, thou and I alone;
  'Twas night, very still was the weather,
    Still the great sea we floated on.

  Fair isles in the moonlight were lying,
    Like spirits, asleep in a trance;
  Their strains of sweet music were sighing,
    And the mists heaved in an eery dance.

  And ever, more sweet, the strains rose there,
    The mists flitted lightly and free;
  But we floated on with our woes there,
    Forlorn on that wide, wide sea.

17[21]

  I see thee nightly in dreams, my sweet,
    Thine eyes the old welcome making,
  And I fling me down at thy dear feet
    With the cry of a heart that is breaking.

  Thou lookest at me in woful wise
    With a smile so sad and holy,
  And pearly tear-drops from thine eyes
    Steal silently and slowly.

  Whispering a word, thou lay'st on my hair
    A wreath with sad cypress shotten;
  awake, the wreath is no longer there,
    And the word I have forgotten.

* * * * *

SONNETS (1822)

TO MY MOTHER

1[22]

  I have been wont to bear my head on high,
    Haughty and stern am I of mood and mien;
    Yea, though a king should gaze on me, I ween,
  I should not at his gaze cast down my eye.
  But I will speak, dear Mother, candidly:
    When most puffed up my haughty mood hath been,
    At thy sweet presence, blissful and serene,
  I feel the shudder of humility.

  Does thy soul all unknown my soul subdue,
  Thy lofty soul that pierces all things through
  And speeds on lightning wings to heaven's blue?
  Or am I racked by what my memories tell
  Of frequent deeds which caused thy heart to swell—
  That beauteous heart which loved me, ah! too well.

2[23]

  With foolish fancy I deserted thee;
  I fain would search the whole world through to learn
  If in it I perchance could love discern,
  That I might love embrace right lovingly.
  I sought for love as far as eye could see,
  My hands extending at each door in turn,
  Begging them not my prayer for love to spurn—
  Cold hate alone they laughing gave to me.
  And ever search'd I after love; yes, ever
  Search'd after love, but love discover'd never,
  And so I homeward went with troubled thought;
  But thou wert there to welcome me again,
  And, ah, what in thy dear eye floated then
  That was the sweet love I so long had sought.

* * * * *

[Illustration: POOR PETER From the Painting by P. Grotjohann]

POOR PETER[24] (1822)

1

  Grete and Hans come dancing by,
    They shout for very glee;
  Poor Peter stands all silently,
    And white as chalk is he.

  Grete and Hans were wed this morn,
    And shine in bright array;
  But ah, poor Peter stands forlorn,
    Dressed for a working-day.

  He mutters, as with wistful eyes
    He gazes at them still:
  "'Twere easy—were I not too wise—
    To do myself some ill…."

2

  "An aching sorrow fills my breast,
    My heart is like to break;
  It leaves me neither peace nor rest,
    And all for Grete's sake.

  "It drives me to her side, as though
    She still could comfort me;
  But in her eyes there's something now
    That makes me turn and flee.

  "I climb the highest hilltop where