Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, GERMANY; A WINTER TALE: CAPUT 18, by HEINRICH HEINE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

GERMANY; A WINTER TALE: CAPUT 18, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The town of minden's a fortress strong
Last Line: As by my feelings knew I.
Subject(s): Freedom; Germany; Liberty; Germans


THE town of Minden's a fortress strong,
With arms and stores well provided;
But Prussian fortresses, truth to say,
I never have abided.

We got there just as evening fell;
The planks of the drawbridge sadly
Beneath us groan'd, as over we roll'd,
And the dark moat gaped on us madly.

The lofty bastions on me gazed
With threat'ning and sulky wonder;
The heavy gate open'd with rattling loud,
And closed with a noise like thunder.

Alas! my soul felt as sad as the soul
Of Odysseus, the world-renown'd warrior,
When he heard Polyphemus rolling a rock
In front of the cave as a barrier.

A Corporal came to the door of the coach
For our names; I replied to this latter act:
"I'm Nobody call'd; I an oculist am,
Who couch the giants for cataract!"

At the inn I found my discomfort increase,
My victuals fill'd me with loathing;
I straight went to bed, but slept not a wink,
So heavy I found the bed-clothing.

The bed was a large, broad featherbed,
Red damask curtains around it,
The canopy wrought with faded gold,
While a dirty tassel crown'd it.

Accursed tassel! of all my repose
It robb'd me all the night through;
It hung over head, like Damocles' sword,
And threaten'd to pierce me right through!

A serpent's head it often appear'd,
And I heard its hissing mysterious:
"In the fortress thou art, and canst not escape" --
A position especially serious!

"O would that I were" -- I thought with a sigh, --
"Of my peaceable home a sharer,
"With my own dear wife in Paris once more,
"In the Faubourg-Poissoniere!"

I felt that a Something oftentimes
Was over my forehead stealing,
Just like a Censor's chilly hand,
And all my thoughts congealing.

Gendarmes, in the dresses of corpses conceal'd,
In white and ghostly confusion
Surrounded my bed, while a rattling of chains
I heard, to swell the illusion.

Alas! the spectres carried me off,
And at length with amazement I found me
Beside a precipitous wall of rocks,
And there they firmly had bound me.

Detestable tassel, so dirty and foul!
Again it appear'd before me,
But now in the shape of a vulture with claws
And black wings hovering o'er me.

And now like the well-known eagle it seem'd
And grasp'd me, and breathing prevented;
It ate the liver out of my breast,
While sadly I groan'd and lamented.

Long time I lamented, when crow'd the cock.
And the feverish vision faded;
Perspiring in bed at Minden I lay,
To a tassel the bird was degraded.

I travell'd with post-horses on,
And free breath presently drew I
On the domain of Buckeburg,
As by my feelings knew I.





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