ROMANCES AND OTHER POEMS

OF THE NEW CENTURY.

1801-1805.

We are now arrived at the last stage of our pleasant pilgrimage, certainly without any perception of diminution in vigour and interest as we advance to its termination. On the contrary, the nervous and deep-toned verses with which the poet ushers in "THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE New CENTURY" appear to hold forth the promise of a long poetical Æra, full of exalted sentiment and lofty imaginings. The "Noble Friend" to whom they were addressed was, it is believed, the Crown Prince of Weimar, to whom, on his journey to Paris, at the peace of Amiens, the lines here printed next in succession are also dedicated. The An die Freunde, which follows, abounds with glowing and patriotic imagery, reminding us forcibly of our own Scottish bard—

"Their groves of sweet myrtle let foreign lands reckon.” .

The two Punschlieds, already given, were of the same date, and breathe the same sentiments. The poems entitled Sehnsucht and Der Pilgrim belong more to the class of the Ideal, from which we have now been separated by a long interval; while the Mädchen von Orleans, the Thekla, einer Geisterstimme, and the Wilhelm Tell, were obviously suggested to the mind of the poet in the course of the composition of the several dramas after which they are respectively entitled; and the Alpenjager and Berglied owe their origin to the conceptions which he had formed of Alpine scenery and its associations while employed on the last of those great productions, completed only in the closing year of

his life, and pronounced by no less an authority than Schlegel to be the finest of all the works of his genius.

The romantic legend of Rodolph of Habsburg was, it is probable, first suggested to his mind in the course of his historical readings preparatory to his undertaking this splendid performance; and, as already remarked, it exhibits a degree of susceptibility to religious emotions when excited by awful and mysterious subjects of contemplation enough, perhaps, to warrant the supposition that, if his life had been prolonged, he might have been led to the same conclusions as Schlegel himself by the same mental pro

cess.

The Ballad founded on the old familiar story of the loves of Leander and Hero was a production of earlier date than the former, being among the productions of the first year of the century, while the Graf von Habsburg belongs to the year 1803, but it is here placed after the other, as introductory to the two remaining poems-both also of classical foundation, and both inspired by the same inexhaustible theme-the Homeric Fables--which gave the first impulse to his Lyrical genius. Of these, the Cassandra needs no other praises after the eloquent eulogy pronounced by Madame de Stael: and the Siegesfest, or "Feast of Victory," a social effusion of Schiller's latest hours, which also obtained the honour of an admirable French version by the same distinguished writer, may be regarded as an appropriate close to the present Volume, commencing with the "Ode to Joy," alone, of all Schiller's productions, composed in the same singular and spirited metre.

These few remarks will render it superfluous to accompany any of the poems of this last division with separate introductory notices, especially as the subjects of none of them require any explanation in order to the rendering them intelligible to the most ordinary classes of readers.

Y

Der Antritt des Neuen Jahrhunderts.

"NOBLE friend! say where may Freedom banish'd, Where may stricken Peace a refuge find, Now the Century in storm hath vanish'd, And the next in carnage treads behind— "And the bond of nations rent asunder,

And old forms swift hasting to decline;
Nor does Ocean stay the battle's thunder,
Nor the Nile-god, nor the ancient Rhine.
"Two gigantic rival states, contending

For the sole dominion of the world,
O'er all laws, all birthrights else impending,
Have the trident and the lightning hurl'd.

“Gold must ransom every nation's charter;
And, like Brennus in those elder days,
Here his iron sword the Gaul for barter
In the wavering scale of justice lays;

"There his fleets the Briton, rich and mighty,
Polypus-like, stretches o'er the deep,
And the kingdom of free Amphitrité
Closes as his own peculiar keep.

"To the south-pole's hidden constellations
In his restless, boundless course he flies-
To all isles-all coasts of furthest nations—
All-but only those of Paradise.

"Vainly o'er the world's wide surface ranging,
Wouldst thou seek that blessed spot to know,
Where bright freedom's verdure smiles unchanging,
Where life's earliest flowers undying blow.
"Endless spreads the globe's vast floating mansion,
Scarce may sail its bulk enormous trace;
Yet not all throughout its huge expansion
Can ten happy beings find a place.

"To the heart's still chamber-deep and lonely-
Must thou flee from life's tumultuous throng.
Freedom in the land of dreams is only,
And the Beauteous blooms alone in song."

Den Erbprinzen von Weimar.

BRING then the last full cup!-the wine-cup flowing
To our lov'd Traveller bring-

From this our peaceful vale to-morrow going,
Which nurs'd his early spring!

He tears himself from Fatherland asunder,
From dearest friends away,

To view that proud free town-the nations' wonder-
Gorg'd with the nations' prey.

Now Discord flees; the thunder-storm has ending;
War lies in fetters held;

And in the Crater we may gaze, descending,
Whence late the Lava well❜d.

Oh may'st thou by a favouring Fate be driven
O'er life's wild course, secure!

Pure is the heart to thee by nature given-
Oh bring it back as pure !

Those realms thou shalt survey, so late disseated By Battle's furious steeds,

Where smiling Peace once more the fields hath greeted,

And strew'd the golden seeds.

Old Father Rhine thou shalt salute, who never Will let the fame be dead

Of thy great grandsire,* whilst his wave for ever Rolls on to the Ocean bed.

There to the Hero's Manes homage render,
And full libations pour

Of his own wine to that old Flood, defender
Of the Germanic shore-

For that thy country's genius may attend thee, When to the further bank,

Where German faith is wanting to befriend thee, Borne on thy bark's frail plank.

* Duke Bernhard of Weimar, celebrated for his victories on the Rhine during the Thirty Years' War.