Classic Poem

What jingles and carols along the street!
Fling open your casements, damsels sweet!
The prentice' friends, they are bearing
The boy on his far wayfaring.

'Mid fluttering ribbons and tossing caps,
Full merry the rabble huzzas and claps;
But the boy regards not the token—
He walks like one heartbroken.

Full clear clinks the wine-can, full red gleams the wine:
“Drink deep and drink deeper, dear brother mine!”
“Oh, have done with the red wine of parting
That burns me within with its smarting!”

And outside from the cottage, last of all,
A maiden peeps out and her tear-drops fall,
Yet her tear-drops to none she discloses
But forget-me-nots and roses.

And outside by the cottage, last of all,
The boy glances up at a casement small,
And glances down without greeting.
'Neath his hand his heart is beating.

“What, brother! Art lacking a bright nosegay?
See yonder—the beckoning, blossomy spray!
God save thee, thou prettiest sweeting!
Drop down now a nosegay for greeting!”

“Nay, brothers, pass yonder casement by.
No prettiest sweeting like her have I.
In the sun those blossoms would wither;
The wind it would blow them thither.”

So farther and farther with shout and song!
And the maiden listens and harkens long:
“Ah, me! he is flown now beyond me—
The boy I have loved so fondly!”

“And here I stay, with my lonely lot,
With roses, ah!—and forget-me-not,
And he whose heart I'd be sharing—
He is gone on his far wayfaring!”