“Cologne” [poem]
THE noon was past, the sun was low,
Yet still we felt his arid glow;
From the red sand, reflected glare
Deadened the breeze, and fired the air.
The open sky was misty grey;
The clouds in mighty masses lay,
That, heaped on the horizon high,
Marked Alpine outline on the sky.
Long had we toiled to gain a brow 1
On which we stood triumphant now,
While the white mist was certain sign
Where took his course the mighty Rhine.
Hills in the distant haze were seen, 2
And wide expanse of plain between,
Whose desert length, without a tree,
Was stretched in vast monotony.
We drove adown that hill amain;
We past along the shadeless plain;
Rested we now where, uncontrolled,
The Rhine his bursting billows rolled;
And ever, ever, fierce and free
Bore broadly onward to the sea.
Yet still we felt his arid glow;
From the red sand, reflected glare
Deadened the breeze, and fired the air.
The open sky was misty grey;
System generated line number
5The clouds in mighty masses lay,
That, heaped on the horizon high,
Marked Alpine outline on the sky.
Long had we toiled to gain a brow 1
On which we stood triumphant now,
System generated line number
10While the white mist was certain sign
Where took his course the mighty Rhine.
Hills in the distant haze were seen, 2
And wide expanse of plain between,
Whose desert length, without a tree,
System generated line number
15Was stretched in vast monotony.
We drove adown that hill amain;
We past along the shadeless plain;
Rested we now where, uncontrolled,
The Rhine his bursting billows rolled;
System generated line number
20And ever, ever, fierce and free
Bore broadly onward to the sea.