Classic Poem

" O hurrying watchman, hither come,
You flee as from some ill at hand!
How are the dear ones in my home,
And have they freed the Fatherland? "

" All's well; as in some house secure,
The blessing grows and yields increase;
Our Germany develops sure:
But from within, by ways of peace.

" Not superficially like France,
Whose outward life such freedom dares;
The German, warier of mischance,
Deep in his soul his freedom wears.

" The minster at Cologne's complete,
Thanks to the Hohenzollern grit;
Hapsburg gave money, as was meet;
A Wittelsbach sent glass for it.

" A constitution, freer laws,
Are pledged us by the royal word —
A word that's worth as much as was,
Deep in the Rhine, the Nibelung hoard.

" Oh, none shall rob us of the Rhine,
That Brutus free 'mongst rivers famed!
His feet the Dutch in bondage twine,
His captive head the Swiss have tamed.

" And God will grant a fleet at length,
And German galleys, by the score,
Employ superfluous German strength;
Then prison stripes will wound no more.

" Spring blossoms, seed-pods burst and fall,
We draw our breath, like Nature, free!
And when we dare not print at all,
The censorship will cease to be. "