Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ROMANCERO: BOOK 1. HISTORIES: OUR MARINE (A NAUTICAL TALE), by HEINRICH HEINE Poet's Biography First Line: A dream of a fleet we lately dreamt Last Line: "to the point from which we started." Subject(s): Germany; Prutz, Robert Eduard (1816-1872); Germans | ||||||||
A DREAM of a fleet we lately dreamt, And enjoy'd a sail delicious Far over the wide and boundless sea, The wind was quite propitious. We gave our frigates the proudest names That we in our calendar reckon'd; One Hoffmann of Fallersleben we call'd, And Prutz we christen'd the second. There floated the cutter Freiligrath, Whereon was seen the figure Of the Moorish king, which gazed below Like a moon (but as black as a nigger). There floated Gustavus Schwab as well, A Pfizer, a Kolle, a Mayer; On each of them stood a Swabian face, Each holding a wooden lyre. There floated Birch-Pfeiffer, a brig which bore On its mast the escutcheon olden Of the Famous Gorman Admiralty, On tatters black-red-golden. We boldly clamber'd on bowsprit and yard, And bore ourselves like sailors; Our jackets were short, our hats betarr'd, And our trousers as big as a tailor's. Full many, who formerly sipp'd but tea As husbands kind and forbearing, Now drank their rum, their pigtail chew'd, And, seaman-like, took to swearing. So bright was our vision, we well night won A naval victory splendid; But when return'd the morning sun, Both fleet and vision had ended. We still were lying at home in bed, Our limbs all over it sprawling; We rubbed the sleep from out of our eyes, The following wise speech bawling: "The world is round; why seek to be tost "On the idle billows, faint-hearted? "When we sail round the world, at last we return "To the point from which we started." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A GERMAN REQUIEM by JAMES FENTON THE BARON'S LAST BANQUET by ALBERT GORTON GREENE THE BOOK OF YOLEK by ANTHONY HECHT MEN AND BOYS by KARL THEODORE KORNER BINGEN ON THE RHINE by CAROLINE ELIZABETH SARAH SHERIDAN NORTON KATHE KOLLWITZ by MURIEL RUKEYSER TO GERMANY by CHARLES HAMILTON SORLEY |
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