23. _His eyes closed_ (in death), TÄTEN SINKEN = _sanken_. _Täten_ is an older preterite indicative. 13. The poem embodies the lure of the water. This motif is clearly expressed in 1 and is repeated in 25. In 9, 13, 29 and 31 metrically the same motif recurs. Compare 9 and 29: the speech becomes song and the lure of the nymph's song draws the fisherman down. 4. _cool to his very heart_. 6. _The flood swells up and divides_ (as the body emerges from it). Note effect of the inversion -- XX -- X --. 13. FISCHLEIN, dative. MIR IST = _I feel_. 16. ERST, _now for the first time_. 19. WELLENATMEND. The word pictures graphically the rise and fall of the sun's image in the waves. 20. DOPPELT SCHÖNER = _doppelt schön_. 22. DAS FEUCHTVERKLÄRTE BLAU, _The azure of the sky transfigured in the water_. 30. _Then he was doomed_. Compare the expression: "he is done for." 14. ERLKÖNIG is a corruption of _Elbkönig_, i.e., the king of the elves. Notice the difference in the speeches of the three characters: the calm assuaging tone of the father, whose senses seem dead to the supernatural; the luring song of the Erlkönig, that changes abruptly to an impetuous demand; the ever increasing terror of the child till its fear is imparted to the father. The child's speech is driven relentlessly forward by terror; notice the effect of the inversion in 22 and 28: -- XX --, etc. 19. FÜHREN DEN NÄCHTLICHEN REIHN, _dance the nightly round_. 20. _and rock thee and dance thee and sing thee to sleep_. 28. _Erlking has done me grievous woe_. 15. Suggested by the Staubbach, a cascade near Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland (October 1779). The poem compares human life in its various aspects to a stream. Notice in this connection how the rhythm varies from stanza to stanza. 12. WOLKENWELLEN, _cloudlike waves_. 24. HIN, _along_. 26. WEIDEN, _let graze or feast_, i.e., mirror. 30. MISCHT VOM GRUND AUS, _stirs from the very bottom._ 16. Willing surrender, contented submission to the will of the Highest is the keynote of this poem. 9. _childlike thrills of awe._ 40, 41. IHRES DASEINS. _Ihres_ refers to _Geschlechter_. To make it refer to _Götter_ (and adopting the variant reading _sie_ [i.e., _Götter_] instead of _sich_) makes an impossible metaphor, since the picture of a chain with its links cannot describe the eternal and changeless life of the gods, but only human life, generation following generation as link on link in a chain. Compare 31, where Goethe has used _Wellen_ with the same purport. 17. Although a part of _Faust_, this poem is none the less a confession of Goethe himself. Over eighty years old, the poet surveys life as a watchman from his high tower, lets his gaze once more wander over the world, when evening comes, and lo, all is good.