Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, GERMANY; A WINTER TALE: CAPUT 19, by HEINRICH HEINE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

GERMANY; A WINTER TALE: CAPUT 19, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: O danton, great was thy mistake
Last Line: "a comforting draught he was blending."
Subject(s): Germany; Germans


O DANTON, great was thy mistake,
And thy error was paid for dearly!
One can carry away one's fatherland
On the soles of one's feet, pretty nearly.

Of the princely domain of Buckeburg
One half to my boots clung in patches;
In all my life I never have seen
A place that in filth its match is.

At the town of Buckeburg shortly I stopp'd,
To see the ancestral castle
Whence my grandfather came; my grandmother though
Of Hamburg was part and parcel.

I got to Hanover just at noon,
And there had my boots clean'd neatly,
And afterwards went to visit the town;
When I travel, I do it completely.

By heavens, how spruce the place appear'd!
No mud in its streets was lying;
Many handsome buildings there I saw,
In massive splendour vying.

I was mostly charm'd by a very large square,
Surrounded by houses superior;
There lives the king and his palace there stands,
Of a really handsome exterior, --

(The palace I mean.) On each side of the door
A sentry-box had its station;
Redcoats with muskets there kept guard,
Of threat'ning and wild reputation.

My cicerone said: "Here lives
"King Ernest Augustus, a tory
"Of the olden school, and a nobleman, --
"Very sharp, though his hairs are hoary.

"In safety idyllic here he dwells,
"For he's far more securely protected
"By the scanty courage of our dear friends
"Than his satellites ever effected.

"I see him sometimes, and then he complains
"How very tedious his post is, --
"The regal post, of which he here
"In Hanover now the boast is.

"Accustom'd to a British life,
"And plagued by spleen, to cure it
"He finds it not easy, and greatly fears
"That he cannot much longer endure it.

"T'other day I found him at early morn
"By the fireside mournfully bending;
"For his dog, who was sick, with his own royal hands
"A comforting draught he was blending."





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