The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 17, No. 477, February 19, 1831Various
History
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 17, No. 477, February 19, 1831
Various
Popular literature -- Great Britain -- Periodicals
In looking over the last volume (16) of your interesting miscellany,
I was much amused with a humorous legend at page 108, called the Rat's
Tower, and according to your reference, having turned to page 68, of
vol. xii. was equally entertained with the same laughable and well told
story versified. This humorous production is extracted from a work
entitled, if I mistake not, "The Rhinish Keepsake," containing many
of the most wonderful and spirit-stirring legends connected with old
chateaux, &c. on the banks of that majestic river, the Rhine. Amongst
other pretty and choice _morceaux_, is a poem under the name of
"_L'Envoy_," which may probably interest yourself and the readers
of the _Mirror_. In perusing the enclosed, you will observe the
infancy, manhood, and old age of "Father Rhine," as he is called, are
all brought in succession before our eyes, which happy and ingenious
idea is taken from a highly descriptive French publication, and perhaps
having named the work, you will pardon my having extracted that portion
which refers more particularly to the subject before us. The author
says, "Dans son enfance le Rhin joue entre les fleurs des Alpes de
la Suisse, il se berce dans le lac de Constance, il en sort avec des
forces nouvelles, il devient un adolescent bouillant, fait une chute
a Schaffhouse, s'avance vers l'age mur, se plait a remplir sa coupe
de vin, court chercher les dangers et les affronte contre les écueils
et les rochers: puis parvenu a un age plus avancée il abandonne les
illusions, les sites romanesques, et cherche l'útile. Dans sa caducité
il desserit et disparait enfin on ne sait trop comment!"
L'ENVOY.
Cologne! Cologne! Thy walls are won,
Farewell my bark--be hush'd my song;
My voyage is o'er--my task is done--
Too pleasant both to last me long.
Adieu, thou noble Rhine, adieu,
Thy scenes for ever rich and new,
Thy cheerful towns, thy Gothic piles,
Thy rude ravines, thy verdant isles;
Thy golden hills with garlands bound,
Thy giant crags with castles crown'd!
I have seen thee by morning's early light,
I have seen thee by evening gray;
With the crimson blush of sun-set bright,
And lit by the moon's pale ray;
Shrouded in mist and darken'd by storm,
With the countless tints of autumn warm:
In ev'ry hue that can o'er thee fall;
And lovely, lovely thou art in all.
The Rhine!--That little word will be
For aye a spell of power to me,
And conjure up, in care's despite,
A thousand visions of delight.
The Rhine! O where beneath the sun
Doth that fair river's rival run?
Where dawns the day upon a stream,
Can in such changeful beauty shine,
Outstripping Fancy's wildest dream,
Like yon green, glancing, glorious Rhine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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