“St Goar” [poem]
St Goar a
We passed a rock, whose bare front ever
Had borne the brunt of wind and weather 1
And downwards by the Rhine we bore
Upon the village of St Goar
That mid the hills embosomed it lay
Where the Rhine checked his onward way
And lay the mighty crags between
As if enamoured of the scene
It loved not on its way to wind
And leave a spot so fair behind
For grim the
The waters had a passage reft
And gaunt the gorge that yawned before
Through which a passage
No marvel they should love to rest
And peaceful spread their placid breast
Before in fury driving dread
Tormented on his rocky bed
Or flinging far his scattering spray
Oer the peaked rocks that bar his way
Wave upon wave at random tost
Or in the giddy whirlpool lost 2
And now are undisturbed sleeping
No more on rocks his billows beating
But lightly laughing laps the tide
Where stoop the vineyards to his side
Had borne the brunt of wind and weather 1
Ruskin's line number
405And downwards by the Rhine we bore
Upon the village of St Goar
That mid the hills embosomed it lay
System generated line number
5Where the Rhine checked his onward way
And lay the mighty crags between
Ruskin's line number
410As if enamoured of the scene
It loved not on its way to wind
And leave a spot so fair behind
System generated line number
10For grim the
chasm
passage
through whose cleftThe waters had a passage reft
Ruskin's line number
415And gaunt the gorge that yawned before
Through which a passage
emerging
they must roarNo marvel they should love to rest
System generated line number
15And peaceful spread their placid breast
Before in fury driving dread
Ruskin's line number
420Tormented on his rocky bed
Or flinging far his scattering spray
Oer the peaked rocks that bar his way
System generated line number
20Wave upon wave at random tost
Or in the giddy whirlpool lost 2
Ruskin's line number
425And now are undisturbed sleeping
No more on rocks his billows beating
But lightly laughing laps the tide
System generated line number
25Where stoop the vineyards to his side