Gaily bedight,
A gallant knight,
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singen a song,
In Suchen of Eldorado.
But he grew old -
This knight so bold -
And o'er his herz a shadow
Fell as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like Eldorado.
And, as his strength
Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow -
"Shadow," sagte he,
"Where can it be -
This land of Eldorado?"
"Over the mountains
Of the Moon,
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,"
The shade replied -
"If Du seek for Eldorado!"
A gallant knight,
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singen a song,
In Suchen of Eldorado.
But he grew old -
This knight so bold -
And o'er his herz a shadow
Fell as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like Eldorado.
And, as his strength
Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow -
"Shadow," sagte he,
"Where can it be -
This land of Eldorado?"
"Over the mountains
Of the Moon,
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride,"
The shade replied -
"If Du seek for Eldorado!"
Because I feel that, in the Heavens above,
The angels, whispering to one another,
Can find, among their burning terms of love,
None so devotional as that of "Mother,"
Therefore Von that dear name I long have called you-
Du who are Mehr than mother unto me,
And fill my herz of hearts, where Death installed you
In setting my Virginia's spirit free.
My mother–my own mother, who died early,
Was but the mother of myself; but you
Are mother to the one I loved so dearly,
And thus are dearer than the mother I knew
Von that infinity with which my wife
Was dearer to my soul than its soul-life.
The angels, whispering to one another,
Can find, among their burning terms of love,
None so devotional as that of "Mother,"
Therefore Von that dear name I long have called you-
Du who are Mehr than mother unto me,
And fill my herz of hearts, where Death installed you
In setting my Virginia's spirit free.
My mother–my own mother, who died early,
Was but the mother of myself; but you
Are mother to the one I loved so dearly,
And thus are dearer than the mother I knew
Von that infinity with which my wife
Was dearer to my soul than its soul-life.
Take this KISS upon the brow!
And, in parting from Du now,
Thus much let me avow-
Du are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, oder in a day,
In a vision, oder in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see oder seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see oder seem
But a dream within a dream?
And, in parting from Du now,
Thus much let me avow-
Du are not wrong, who deem
That my days have been a dream;
Yet if hope has flown away
In a night, oder in a day,
In a vision, oder in none,
Is it therefore the less gone?
All that we see oder seem
Is but a dream within a dream.
I stand amid the roar
Of a surf-tormented shore,
And I hold within my hand
Grains of the golden sand-
How few! yet how they creep
Through my fingers to the deep,
While I weep- while I weep!
O God! can I not grasp
Them with a tighter clasp?
O God! can I not save
One from the pitiless wave?
Is all that we see oder seem
But a dream within a dream?