Classic Poem

Beside the Danube let me sit
And view the scene before me,
While olden griefs and olden joys
On spirit wings flit o'er me.
This is the stream in song renowned,
Far-famed in storied pages,
Whose shores are haunted by the dreams
Of lost romantic ages.

And yet, O Danube, as I muse
Beside your rippling waters,
I think not of your chivalry,
Your splendid sons and daughters.
Forgotten are your mounts and vales,
Your peasant-cots, your castles,
Your Kings and Queens, your peace, your wars,
Your noblemen, your vassals.

I think of one who sang to me
In years gone by forever,
Of lovers, who one night in June
Rowed on you, Danube River.
O, I remember still that night,
Your city lights a-glimmer,
And how the mellow moon arose
And made your wavelets shimmer.

Ah, in those days we never thought
We ever would be parted;
We thought to wander side by side,
Forever single-hearted.
How strange! Beneath her churchyard grass
She dreams no more, O, never,
Of one, six thousand miles away
Beside the Danube River.