Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE ROMANCE OF COLOGNE, by THOMAS HOOD Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Tis even - on the pleasant banks of rhine Last Line: Or hearts or vows are broken? Subject(s): Cologne, Germany | ||||||||
'TIS even -- on the pleasant banks of Rhine The thrush is singing, and the dove is cooing, A youth and maiden on the turf recline Alone -- And he is wooing. Yet woos in vain, for to the voice of love No kindly sympathy the Maid discovers, Though round them both, and in the air above, The tender Spirit hovers! Untouch'd by lovely Nature and her laws, The more he pleads, more coyly she represses; -- Her lips denies, and now her hand withdraws, Rejecting his caresses. Fair is she as the dreams young poets weave, Bright eyes, and dainty lips, and tresses curly; In outward loveliness a child of Eve, But cold as Nymph of Lurley! The more Love tries her pity to engross, The more she chills him with a strange behaviour; Now tells her beads, now gazes on the Cross And Image of the Saviour. Forth goes the Lover with a farewell moan, As from the presence of a thing inhuman; -- Oh! what unholy spell hath turn'd to stone The young warm heart of Woman! 'Tis midnight -- and the moonbeam, cold and wan, On bower and river quietly is sleeping, And o'er the corse of a self-murder'd man The Maiden fair is weeping. In vain she looks into his glassy eyes, No pressure answers to her hand so pressing; In her fond arms impassively he lies, Clay-cold to her caressing. Despairing, stunn'd by her eternal loss, She flies to succour that may best beseem her; But, lo! a frowning Figure veils the Cross, And hides the blest Redeemer! With stern right hand it stretches forth a scroll, Wherein she reads in melancholy letters, The cruel fatal pact that placed her soul And her young heart in fetters. "Wretch! Sinner! Renegade! to truth and God, Thy holy faith for human love to barter!" No more she hears, but on the bloody sod Sinks, Bigotry's last Martyr! And side by side the hapless Lovers lie: Tell me, harsh priest! by yonder tragic token, What part hath God in such a Bond, whereby Or hearts or vows are broken? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON MY JOYFUL DEPARTURE FROM THE CITY OF COLOGNE by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE A LEGEND OF COLOGNE by FRANCIS BRET HARTE GERMANY; A WINTER TALE: CAPUT 4 by HEINRICH HEINE LYRICAL INTERLUDE: 11 by HEINRICH HEINE TO EMILY; WITH A FLASK OF RHINE WATER by THOMAS HOOD THE FOUNTAIN by KATHARINE TYNAN IN THE CATHEDRAL AT COLOGNE by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH COLOGNE CATHEDRAL by FRANCES WILLS SHAW |
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