["St. Goar"] [poem]
We
a
past a rock, whose bare front ever,
b
Had borne the brunt of wind, & weather, 1
And downwards by the Rhine we bore,
Upon the village of St Goar,
That mid the hills embosomed lay,
Where the Rhine checked his onward way,
And lay the mighty crags between,
As if, enamoured of the scene,
He loved not on his way to wind,
And leave a scene so fair behind
For grim the chasm, through whose cleft,
The waters had a passage reft,
And gaunt the gorge that yawned before
Through which, emerging, they must roar,
No marvel they should love to rest,
And peaceful spread their placid breast,
Before, in fury driving dread,
Tormented on their rocky bed,
Or flinging far their scattering spray,
Oʼer the peaked rocks that barred their way,
Wave upon wave at random tossed,
Or in the giddy whirlpool lost, 2
And now are undisturbed sleeping,
No more on rocks those billows beating,
But lightly laughing laps the tide,
Where stoop the vineyards to his side.
Had borne the brunt of wind, & weather, 1
And downwards by the Rhine we bore,
Upon the village of St Goar,
That mid the hills embosomed lay,
System generated line number
5Where the Rhine checked his onward way,
And lay the mighty crags between,
As if, enamoured of the scene,
He loved not on his way to wind,
And leave a scene so fair behind
System generated line number
10For grim the chasm, through whose cleft,
The waters had a passage reft,
And gaunt the gorge that yawned before
Through which, emerging, they must roar,
No marvel they should love to rest,
System generated line number
15And peaceful spread their placid breast,
Before, in fury driving dread,
Tormented on their rocky bed,
Or flinging far their scattering spray,
Oʼer the peaked rocks that barred their way,
System generated line number
20Wave upon wave at random tossed,
Or in the giddy whirlpool lost, 2
And now are undisturbed sleeping,
No more on rocks those billows beating,
But lightly laughing laps the tide,
System generated line number
25Where stoop the vineyards to his side.