Lend me your song, ye nightingales! Oh pour The mazy running soul of melody Into my varied verse. Again, She sings Her sorrows through the night; and, on the bough Sole sitting, still at every dying fall Takes up again her lamentable strain Of winding woe. Also in his _Hymn_, Sweetest of birds! sweet Philomela, charm The listening shades. To Richmond he alludes frequently, _e.g._ Ascend While radiant Summer opens all its pride Thy hill, delightful Shene. Shene was the old name for Richmond.--ED.] THE GERMANS ON THE HEIGHTS OF HOCK HEIM[407] Published 1822 This sonnet was first published in the "Memorials of a Tour on the Continent, 1820"; the title being _Local Recollections on the Heights near Hockheim_. In 1827 it became one of the "Sonnets dedicated to Liberty."--ED. Abruptly paused the strife;--the field throughout Resting upon his arms each warrior stood, Checked in the very act and deed of blood, With breath suspended, like a listening scout. O Silence! thou wert mother of a shout 5 That through the texture of yon azure dome Cleaves its glad way, a cry of harvest home Uttered to Heaven in ecstasy devout! The barrier Rhine hath flashed, through battle-smoke, On men who gaze[408] heart-smitten by the view, 10 As if all Germany had felt the shock! --Fly, wretched Gauls! ere they the charge renew Who have seen--themselves now casting off the yoke--[409] The unconquerable Stream his course pursue.[EM] VARIANTS: [Footnote 407: 1827. The title in 1822 was _Sonnet_. _Local Recollections on the Heights near Hockheim._] [Footnote 408: 1827. ... gazed ... 1822. ] [Footnote 409: 1837. ... (themselves delivered from the yoke) 1822. ] FOOTNOTES: [Footnote EM: The event is thus recorded in the journals of the day:--"When the Austrians took Hockheim, in one part of the engagement they got to the brow of the hill, whence they had their first view of the Rhine. They instantly halted--not a gun was fired--not a voice heard: but they stood gazing on the river with those feelings which the events of the last 15 years at once called up. Prince Schwartzenberg rode up to know the cause of this sudden stop, they then gave three cheers, rushed after the enemy, and drove them into the water."--W. W. 1822. The only reference which Dorothy Wordsworth makes to Hockheim in her Journal of the Tour on the Continent (1820) is as follows:--July 25th.--"We had a magnificent prospect down the Rhine into the Reingaw, stretching towards Bingen. Hockheim is on the right bank, nearly opposite to Mayence. The broad hills are enlivened by hamlets, villas, villages, and churches."