Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, AN EVENING SONG, by FRIEDRICH RUCKERT


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

AN EVENING SONG, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I stood upon the mountain
Last Line: By mountain paths of time.
Alternate Author Name(s): Raimar, Freidmund


I STOOD upon the mountain
Before the sun had set,
And saw how o'er the forest
Hung evening's golden net.

Earth was bedewed with slumber,
Shed from the clouded sky,
And all the bells of even
Sang Nature's lullaby.

I said -- Oh heart, acknowledge
The sleep of earth and air,
And with the meadow's children,
Rest thou from all thy care.

For all the little blossoms
Their eyelids gently close,
And with a softer motion
The streamlet's current flows.

And now the sylph, grown weary,
Under a leaf doth hide;
The dragon-fly, dew-sprinkled,
Sleeps at the river-side.

Now in his rose-leaf cradle
The golden beetle rocks;
Back to the fold are hasting
The shepherd and his flocks.

The lark flies earthward, seeking
His clover-shaded nest,
And in the wood's recesses
Lie hart and doe at rest.

And he who has a cottage
There to his rest has lain,
And he who lives in exile,
In dreams goes home again.

An eager yearning fills me:
In vain I long to climb
Up to my own true country
By mountain paths of time.







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