O many-toned and chainless wind! Ye clouds that gorgeously repose Around the setting sun, Answer! have ye a home for those Whose earthly race is run? The bright clouds answer'd—“ We depart, We vanish from the sky; Ask what is deathless in thy heart, For that which cannot die." Speak then, thou voice of God within, And the voice answer'd-"Be thou still! Clouds, winds, and stars their part fulfilThine is, to trust in Heaven." KORNER AND HIS SISTER. ["Charles Theodore Körner, the celebrated young Germar poet and soldier, was killed in a skirmish with a detachment of French troops on the 20th of August 1813, a few hours after the composition of his popular piece, The Sword-Song, He was buried at the village of Wöbbelin in Mecklenburg, under a beautiful oak, in a recess of which he had frequently deposited verses composed by him while campaigning in its vicinity. The monument erected to his memory is of castiron; and the upper part is wrought into a lyre and sword, a favourite emblem of Körner's, from which one of his works had been entitled. Near the grave of the poet is that of his only sister, who died of grief for his loss, having only survived him long enough to complete his portrait and a drawing of his burial-place. Over the gate of the cemetery is engraved one of his own lines: Vergiss die treuen Todten nicht.' (Forget not the faithful dead.)" -See RICHARDSON'S Translation of Körner's Life and Works, and DowNE's Letters from Mecklenburg.] GREEN wave the oak for ever o'er thy rest, Rest, bard! rest, soldier! By the father's hand Here shall the child of after years be led, With his wreath-offering silently to stand In the hush'd presence of the glorious dead Soldier and bard! for thou thy path hast trod With freedom and with God. The oak waved proudly o'er thy burial rite, On thy crown'd bier to slumber warriors bore thee, And with true hearts thy brethren of the fight Wept as they veil'd their drooping banners o'er thee; And the deep guns with rolling peal gave token That Lyre and Sword were broken. Thou hast a hero's tomb: a lowlier bed Is hers, the gentle girl beside thee lyingThe gentle girl that bow'd her fair young head When thou wert gone, in silent sorrow dying. Brother, true friend! the tender and the brave!She pined to share thy grave. Fame was thy gift from others;-but for her, It was thy spirit, brother! which had made The bright earth glorious to her youthful eye, Since first in childhood midst the vines ye play'd, And sent glad singing through the free blue sky. Ye were but two-and when that spirit pass'd, Woe to the one, the last! Woe, yet not long! She linger'd but to trace Thine image from the image in her breastOnce, once again to see that buried face But smile upon her, ere she went to rest. Too sad a smile! its living light was o'erIt answer'd hers no more. The earth grew silent when thy voice departed, The home too lonely whence thy step had fled; 1 The following lines, addressed to the author of the above, by the venerable father of Körner, who, with the mother, survived the "Lyre, Sword, and Flower," here commemorated, may not be uninteresting to the German reader : "Wohllaut tont aus der Ferne von freundlichen Luften getragen, Schmeichelt mit lindernder Kraft sich in der Trauernden Ohr, Starkt den erhebenden Glauben an solcher seelen Verwandschaft, Die zum Tempel die brust nur für das Wurdige weihn. What then was left for her the faithful-hearted? Have ye not met ere now?-so let those trust That meet for moments but to part for years— That weep, watch, pray, to hold back dust from dust That love, where love is but a fount of tears. Brother! sweet sister! peace around ye dwell: Lyre, Sword, and Flower, farewell! 1 THE DEATH-DAY OF KORNER.2 A SONG for the death-day of the braveA song of pride! The youth went down to a hero's grave, With the sword, his bride.3 He went, with his noble heart unworn, And pure, and high An eagle stooping from clouds of morn, Only to die. He went with the lyre, whose lofty tone Beneath his hand Had thrill'd to the name of his God alone And his fatherland. And with all his glorious feelings yet Like a southern stream that no frost hath met A song for the death-day of the brave- For him that went to a hero's grave, He hath left a voice in his trumpet lays And a guiding spirit for after days, Aus dem Lande zu dem sich stets der gefeyerte Jungling THEODOR KORNER'S VATER. 2 On reading part of a letter from Körner's father, addressed to Mr Richardson, the translator of his works, in which he speaks of "The Death-day of his son.” 3 See The Sword Song, composed on the morning of his death. |