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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


PARTING AND RETURN: 1 by FRIEDRICH ADOLF AXEL DETLEV VON LILIENCRON

First Line: ALL OVER, OVER - AND MY EYES
Last Line: AND HOMELESS, I MUST FEEL THE GALE.

All over, over--and my eyes
Afar are straying in despair.
All over--but the sea-gull flies,
My plaintive escort, through the air.

The gull returns: far, far away
I leave my fatherland behind;
An outcast from my home I stray
Where I my grave had hoped to find.

When yesterday, in parting pain,
Enraged the linden bough I shook,
And heard the partridge in the grain,
A fever-spell my limbs o'ertook.

My ship is pitching, tossed by waves,
The mates are singing while they sail.
My heart is tossed, it storms and raves,
And homeless, I must feel the gale.



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