“Andernacht” [poem]
 
We have wound a weary way, a
Twilights mists are gathering grey,
Purple now the hills are showing
Bright the western clouds are glowing
Lashing on with giant force,
System generated line number
5

Rolls the Rhine his sullen course,
Flash his waves with flamy red,
Eddying oer their basalt bed,
Now with wide expanded breast
Now between the hills compressed,
System generated line number
10

Ever noble, ever free,
Flows his river majesty
Now upon the evening skies,
Andernachtʼs grey ruins rise, 1
Memorials of the Roman power, 2
System generated line number
15

Buttress and battlement and tower,
Decaying, falling fast away,
The monuments of Caesars sway,
In heaps together loosely thrown,
The sculptured head, inscriptioned stone
System generated line number
20

Unguarded now the bridges length,
And failing fast its arches strength
The green sod in the moat is growing
The cold wind in the chambers blowing
And flapping through the thin night air
System generated line number
25

The owl and bat the tenants there,