KÖRNER'S SWORD SONG,

COMPLETED ONE HOUR BEFORE HE FELL ON THE BATTLE-FIELD, AUG. 26, 1813.

WORD at my left side gleaming!
Why is thy keen glance, beaming,
So fondly bent on mine?

I love that smile of thine!

Hurrah!

"Borne by a trooper daring,
My looks his fire-glance wearing,

I arm a freeman's hand:

This well delights thy brand!

Hurrah!"

Ay, good sword, free I wear thee;
And, true heart's love, I bear thee,
Betrothed one, at my side,

As my dear, chosen bride!

"To thee till death united,

Hurrah!

Thy steel's bright life is plighted;
Ah, were my love but tried!
When wilt thou wed thy bride?

Hurrah!"

KÖRNER'S SWORD SONG.

The trumpet's festal warning
Shall hail our bridal morning;

When loud the cannon chide,

Then clasp I my loved bride!
Hurrah!

"O joy, when thine arms hold me!

I pine until they fold me.

Come to me! bridegroom, come!

Thine is my maiden bloom.

Hurrah!"

Why, in thy sheath upspringing,
Thou wild, dear steel, art ringing?

Why clanging with delight,

So eager for the fight?

Hurrah!

"Well may thy scabbard rattle :

Trooper, I pant for battle;

Right eager for the fight,

I clang with wild delight.

Hurrah!"

Why thus, my love, forth creeping?

Stay in thy chamber, sleeping;

Wait still, in the narrow room :
Soon for my bride I come.

Hurrah!

KÖRNER'S SWORD SONG.

"Keep me not longer pining! O for Love's garden, shining With roses bleeding red,

And blooming with the dead!

Hurrah!"

Come from thy sheath, then, treasure!
Thou trooper's true eye-pleasure!

Come forth, my good sword, come!
Enter thy father-home!

Hurrah!

"Ha! in the free air glancing,
How brave this bridal dancing!

How, in the sun's glad beams,
Bride-like, thy bright steel gleams!
Hurrah!"

Come on, ye German horsemen !

Come on, ye valiant Norsemen !

Swells not your hearts' warm tide?

Clasp each in hand his bride!

Hurrah!

Once at your left side sleeping,

Scarce her veiled glance forth peeping:
Now, wedded with your right,

God plights your bride in the light.
Hurrah!

KÖRNER'S SWORD SONG.

Then press with warm caresses,
Close lips and bridal kisses,

Your steel; cursed be his head

Who fails the bride he wed!

Hurrah!

Now, till your swords flash, flinging
Clear sparks forth, wave them singing.
Day dawns for bridal pride;
Hurrah, thou iron bride!

THE RIVER TIME.

O! a wonderful stream is the River Time,
As it runs through the realm of tears,
With a faultless rhythm and a musical rhyme,
And a broader sweep and a surge sublime,
As it blends with the ocean of Years.

How the winters are drifting, like flakes of snow,

And the summers, like buds between,

And the year in the sheaf-so they come and they go, On the river's breast, with its ebb and its flow,

As it glides in the shadow and sheen.

There's a magical isle up the River Time,
Where the softest of airs are playing;
There's a cloudless sky and a tropical clime,
And a song as sweet as a vesper chime,

And the Junes with the roses are staying.

And the name of the isle is the Long Ago,
And we bury our treasures there;

There are brows of beauty, and bosoms of snow;
They are heaps of dust- but we loved them so!
There are trinkets, and tresses of hair.