And
when I reached the bridge I saw,
Where the bastion guards the river,
The waves of :Father Rhine below
In the quiet moonlight quiver.
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note.
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2
"How
has it fared with you, Father Rhine?
Once more I give you greeting.
How often with a wistful heart
I have longed for this hour of meeting!".
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3
Having
spoken thus, I heard in the depths
A curious peevish moaning
That sounded like an old man's cough,
Accompanied by groaning.
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4
"Welcome,
my boy; for your kindly thoughts
In exile I am grateful.
We have not met for thirteen years—
Disastrous years and fateful.
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5
"At
Biberich I have swallowed stones.
The taste was vile, yet worse is
What heavier on my stomach lies—
One Niklas Becker's verses.
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6
"To
hear him sing you would certainly think
That I was some virgin speckless,
Who had guarded from every thieving hand
Her crown o£ honour fleckless.
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7
"I
have been so mad when I heard them shout
That song the fool wrote round me,
That I've almost torn my old white beard,
In myself have almost drowned me.
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text .
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"The
French could tell a truer tale:
Quite another sort of story.
'They knew how often they fouled my waves
While marching on to glory.
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9
"The
silly song and the silly man !
He has shamefully stigmatized me,
And, for all I know, in politics
He may even have compromised me.
