BLESSED ARE THE DEAD.

O, HOW blest are ye whose toils are ended!
Who, through death, have unto God ascended!
Ye have arisen

From the cares which keep us still in prison.

We are still as in a dungeon living,

Still oppressed with sorrow and misgiving;
Our undertakings

Are but toils, and troubles, and heart-breakings.

Ye, meanwhile, are in your chambers sleeping,
Quiet, and set free from all our weeping;
No cross nor trial

Hinders your enjoyments with denial.

Christ has wiped away your tears for ever;
Ye have that for which we still endeavour.
To you are chanted

Songs which yet no mortal ear have haunted.

Ah! who would not, then, depart with gladness,
To inherit heaven for earthly sadness?

Who here would languish

Longer in bewailing and in anguish ?

Come, O Christ, and loose the chains that bind us!
Lead us forth, and cast this world behind us!

THE BIRD AND THE SHIP.

FROM MÜLLER.

"THE rivers rush into the sea,

By castle and town they go;
The winds behind them merrily
Their noisy trumpets blow.

"The clouds are passing far and high,
We little birds in them play;
And everything, that can sing and fly,
Goes with us, and far away.

"I greet thee, bonny boat! Whither, or whence
With thy fluttering golden band?”—
"I greet thee, little bird! To the wide sea
I haste from the narrow land.

"Full and swollen is every sail;
I see no longer a hill,

I have trusted all to the sounding gale,
And it will not let me stand still.

"And wilt thou, little bird, go with us?
Thou mayest stand on the mainmast tall,
For full to sinking is my house

With merry companions all."

"I need not and seek not company,
Bonny boat, I can sing all alone;
For the mainmast tall too heavy am I,
Bonny boat, I have wings of my own.

"High over the sails, high over the mast,
Who shall gainsay these joys?

When thy merry companions are still, at last Thou shalt hear the sound of my voice.

"Who neither may rest, nor listen may,
God bless them every one!

I dart away, in the bright blue day,
And the golden fields of the sun.

"Thus do I sing my weary song,

Wherever the four winds blow;
And this same song, my whole life long,
Neither Poet nor Printer may know."

THE HAPPIEST LAND.

FRAGMENT OF A MODERN GERMAN BALLAD.

THE CASTLE BY THE SEA.

FROM UHLAND.

"Hast thou seen that lordly castle,
That Castle by the Sea ?
Golden and red above it
The clouds float gorgeously.

"And fain it would stoop downward
To the mirrored wave below;
And fain it would soar upward
In the evening's crimson glow."

"Well have I seen that castle,
That Castle by the Sea,
And the moon above it standing,
And the mist rise solemnly."

"The winds and the waves of ocean,
Had they a merry chime ?
Didst thou hear, from those lofty
chambers,

The harp and the minstrel's rhyme ?”

"The winds and the waves of ocean,
They rested quietly;
But I heard on the gale a sound of wail,
And tears came to mine eye."

"And sawest thou on the turrets
The King and his royal bride!
And the wave of their crimson mantles?
And the golden crown of pride?

"Led they not forth, in rapture,
A beauteous maiden there?
Resplendent as the morning sun,
Beaming with golden hair?"

"Well saw I the ancient parents;
Without the crown of pride;
They were moving slow, in weeds of

woe,

No maiden was by their side!"

WANDERER'S NIGHT-SONGS.

FROM GOETHE.

I.

THOU that from the heaven's art,
Every pain and sorrow stillest,
And the doubly wretched heart
Doubly with refreshment fillest
I am weary with contending!
Why this rapture and unrest?
Peace descending

Come, ah, come into my breast!

II.

O'er all the hill-tops

Is quiet now,

In all the tree-tops
Hearest thou

Hardly a breath;

The birds are asleep in the trees.

Wait; soon like these

Thou too shalt rest.