Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PICTURES OF TRAVEL: THE BALTIC, PART 1: 6. DECLARATION, by HEINRICH HEINE



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PICTURES OF TRAVEL: THE BALTIC, PART 1: 6. DECLARATION, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Onward glimmering came the evening
Last Line: "agnes, I love thee!"
Subject(s): Love; Sea; Ocean


ONWARD glimmering came the evening,
Wilder tossed the flood,
And I sat on the strand, regarding
The snowy dance of the billows,
And soon my bosom swell'd like the sea;
A deep home-sickness yearningly seized me
For thee, thou darling form,
Who everywhere surround'st me,
And everywhere call'st me,
Everywhere, everywhere,
In the moan of the wind, in the roar of the ocean,
In the sigh within my own breast.

With brittle reed I wrote on the sand:
"Agnes, I love thee!"
But wicked billows soon pour'd themselves
Over the blissful confession,
Effacing it all.

Ah too fragile reed, ah fast-scatter'd sand,
Ah fugitive billows, I'll trust you no more!
The heavens grow darker, my heart grows wilder
And with vigorous hand from the forests of Norway
Tear I the highest fir-tree,
And plunge it deep
In Etna's glowing abyss, and thereafter
With fire-imbued giant-pen
I write on the dark veil of heaven:
"Agnes, I love thee!"
Every night gleams thenceforward
On high that eternal fiery writing,
And all generations of farthest descendants
Read gladly the heavenly sentence:
"Agnes, I love thee!"





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