Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN, by HEINRICH HEINE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: The world is topsy-turvy turn'd
Last Line: "long life to the king!"" shouting gladly."
Subject(s): Epitaphs; Germany; Heroism; Germans; Heroes; Heroines


THE world is topsy-turvy turn'd,
We walk feet-upwards in it;
The woodcocks shoot the sportsmen down,
A dozen in a minute.

The calves are seen to roast the cook,
On men are riding the horses;
On freedom of teaching and laws of light
The Catholic owl discourses.

The herring is a sans-culotte,
The truth is told by Bettina,
And puss-in-boots brings Sophocles
On the stage, with learned demeanour.

An ape for German heroes has built
A Pantheon, for glory zealous;
And Massmann has lately been using a comb,
As German papers tell us.

The German bears, I grieve to say,
Are atheists unbelieving,
And in their place the parrots of France
The Christian faith are receiving.

The Moniteur of Uckermark
With equal frenzy seems smitten;
The dead have on the living there
The vilest epitaph written.

Then let us not swim against the stream,
Good friends! 'twould serve us but badly;
But let us ascend the Templehof hill,
"Long life to the king!" shouting gladly.





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