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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


LONGING by JOSEPH VON EICHENDORFF

First Line: THE STARS WERE SO GOLDEN AND GLISTENING
Last Line: IN THE GLORIOUS SUMMER NIGHT.

The stars were so golden and glistening;
I stood by the window alone,
To songs of the post-horn listening,
O'er silent moorland blown.
My heart within me was burning.
"To travel--ah, what delight!"
I thought in my secret yearning,
In the glorious summer night.

Two merry youths were walking
By the slope of yonder hill.
I heard their singing and talking,
When all about was still:
Of woodlands murmuring mildly,
Ravines from the dizziest height,
Of waterfalls that wildly
Pour into the forest's night.

They sang of marble shining,
Of garden walls o'er-grown,
Where vines are rampantly twining,
Of moon-lit palaces lone,
Where maids at the windows are rousing
The music from lutes with delight,
Where murmuring fountains are drowsing
In the glorious summer night.



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