Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE DIVER, by JOHANN CHRISTOPH FRIEDRICH VON SCHILLER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE DIVER, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Oh, where is the knight or the squire so bold
Last Line: Shore.
Alternate Author Name(s): Schiller, Friedrich Von
Subject(s): Drowning; Germany; Germans


"OH, where is the knight or the squire so bold,
As to dive to the howling charybdis below? --
I cast into the whirlpool a goblet of gold,
And o'er it already the dark waters flow:
Whoever to me may the goblet bring,
Shall have for his guerdon that gift of his king."

He spoke, and the cup from the terrible steep,
That rugged and hoary, hung over the verge
Of the endless and measureless world of the deep,
Swirled into the maelstrom that maddened the
surge.
"And where is the diver so stout to go --
I ask ye again -- to the deep below?"

And the knights and the squires that gathered
around,
Stood silent -- and fixed on the ocean their eyes;
They looked on the dismal and savage profound,
And the peril chilled back every thought of the
prize.
And thrice spoke the monarch --"The cup to win,
Is there never a wight who will venture in?"

And all as before heard in silence the king --
Till a youth, with an aspect unfearing but
gentle,
'Mid the tremulous squires, stept out from the
ring,
Unbuckling his girdle, and doffing his mantle;
And the murmuring crowd, as they parted asun-
der,
On the stately boy cast their looks of wonder.

As he strode to the marge of the summit, and
gave
One glance on the gulf of that merciless main;
Lo! the wave that for ever devours the wave,
Casts roaringly up the charybdis again;
And, as with the swell of the far thunder-boom,
Rushes foamingly forth from the heart of the
gloom.

And it bubbles and seethes, and it hisses and
roars,
As when fire is with water commixed and con-
tending;
And the spray of its wrath to the welkin up-soars,
And flood upon flood hurries on, never ending.
And it never will rest, nor from travail be free,
Like a sea that is laboring the birth of a sea.

And at last there lay open the desolate realm!
Through the breakers that whitened the waste
of the swell,
Dark -- dark yawned a cleft in the midst of the
whelm,
The path to the heart of that fathomless hell.
Round and round whirled the waves -- deep and
deeper still driven,
Like a gorge thro' the mountainous main thunder-
riven.
The youth gave his trust to his Maker! Before
That path through the riven abyss closed
again --
Hark! a shriek from the crowd rang aloft from
the shore,
And, behold! he is whirled in the grasp of the
main!
And o'er him the breakers mysteriously rolled,
And the giant-mouth closed on the swimmer so
bold.

O'er the surface grim silence lay dark and pro-
found,
But the deep from below murmured hollow and
fell;
And the crowd, as it shuddered, lamented aloud --
"Gallant youth -- noble heart -- fare-thee-well,
fare-thee-well!"
And still ever deepening that wail as of woe,
More hollow the gulf sent its howl from below.

If thou should'st in those waters thy diadem fling,
And cry, "Who may find it shall win it, and
wear;"
God's wot, though the prize were the crown of a
king --
A crown at such hazard were valued too dear.
For never did lips of the living reveal,
What the deeps that howl yonder in terror con-
ceal.

Oh many a ship, to that breast grappled fast,
Has gone down to the fearful and fathomless
grave;
Again crashed together, the keel and the mast,
To be seen, tossed aloft in the glee of the
wave. --
Like the growth of a storm ever louder and
clearer,
Grows the roar of the gulf rising nearer and
nearer.

And it bubbles and seethes, and it hisses and
roars,
As when fire is with water commixed and con-
tending;
And the spray of its wrath to the welkin up-soars,
And flood upon flood hurries on, never ending,
And, as with the swell of the far thunder-boom,
Rushes roaringly forth from the heart of the
gloom.

And lo! from the heart of that far-floating gloom,
What gleams on the darkness so swanlike and
white?
Lo! an arm and a neck, glancing up from the
tomb! --
They battle -- the Man with the Element's
might.
It is he -- it is he! -- In his left hand behold,
As a sign -- as a joy! shines the goblet of gold!

And he breathed deep, and he breathed long,
And he greeted the heavenly delight of the day.
They gaze on each other -- they shout as they
throng --
"He lives -- lo, the ocean has rendered its prey!
And out of the grave where the Hell began,
His valor has rescued the living man!"

And he comes with the crowd in their clamor and
glee,
And the goblet his daring has won from the
water,
He lifts to the king as he sinks on his knee;
And the king from her maidens has beckoned
his daughter,
And he bade her the wine to his cup-bearer bring,
And thus spake the Diver -- "Long life to the
king!

"Happy they whom the rose-hues of daylight re-
joice,
The air and the sky that to mortals are given!
May the horror below never more find a voice --
Nor Man stretch too far the wide mercy of
Heaven!
Never more -- never more may he lift from the mir-
ror,
The Veil which is woven with Night and with
Terror!

"Quick-brightening like lightning -- it tore me
along,
Down, down, till the gush of a torrent at play
In the rocks of its wilderness caught me -- and
strong
As the wings of an eagle, it whirled me away.
Vain, vain were my struggles -- the circle had won
me,
Round and round in its dance the wild element
spun me.

"And I called on my God, and my God heard my
prayer,
In the strength of my need, in the gasp of my
breath --
And showed me a crag that rose up from the lair,
And I clung to it, trembling -- and baffled the
death.
And, safe in the perils around me, behold
On the spikes of the coral the goblet of gold!

"Below, at the foot of that precipice drear,
Spread the gloomy, and purple, and pathless ob-
scure!
A silence of horror that slept on the ear,
That the eye more appalled might the horror
endure!
Salamander -- snake -- dragon -- vast reptiles that
dwell
In the deep -- coiled about the grim jaws of their
hell!

"Dark-crawled -- glided dark the unspeakable
swarms,
Like masses unshapen, made life hideously;
Here clung and here bristled the fashionless
forms,
Here the Hammer-fish darkened the dark of the
sea,
And with teeth grinning white, and a menacing
motion,
Went the terrible Shark -- the hyena of Ocean.

"There I hung, and the awe gathered icily o'er
me,
So far from the earth where man's help there
was none!
The one Human Thing, with the Goblins before
me --
Alone -- in a loneness so ghastly -- ALONE!
Fathom-deep from man's eye in the speechless pro-
found,
With the death of the main and the monsters
around.

"Methought, as I gazed through the darkness,
that now
A hundred-limbed creature caught sight of its
prey,
And darted. -- O God! from the far-flaming bough
Of the coral, I swept on the horrible way;
And it seized me, the wave with its wrath and its
roar,
It seized me to save -- King, the danger is o'er!"

On the youth gazed the monarch, and marvelled --
quoth he,
"Bold Diver, the goblet I promised is thine,
And this ring will I give, a fresh guerdon to
thee,
Never jewels more precious shone up from the
mine;
If thou'll bring me fresh tidings, and venture
again,
To say what lies hid in the innermost main!"

Then outspake the daughter in tender emotion,
"Ah! father, my father, what more can there
rest?
Enough of this sport with the pitiless ocean --
He has served thee as none would, thyself hast
confest
If nothing can slake thy wild thirst of desire,
Be your knights not, at least, put to shame by the
squire!"

The king seized the goblet -- he swung it on high,
And whirling, it fell in the roar of the tide;
"But bring back that goblet again to my eye,
And I'll hold thee the dearest that rides by my
side,
And thine arms shall embrace as thy bride, I de-
cree,
The maiden whose pity now pleadeth for thee."

In his heart, as he listened, there leapt the wild
joy --
And the hope and the love through his eyes
spoke in fire,
On that bloom, on that blush, gazed, delighted, the
boy;
The maiden she faints at the feet of her sire!
Here the guerdon divine; there the danger be-
neath;
He resolves! -- To the strife with the life and the
death!

They hear the loud surges sweep back in their
swell;
Their coming the thunder-sound heralds along!
Fond eyes yet are tracking the spot where he
fell --
They come, the wild waters, in tumult and
throng,
Rearing up to the cliff -- roaring back as before;
But no wave ever brought the lost youth to the
shore.




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