Potiphar's Wife and Other Poems/Durch den Wald

by Elisabeth of Wied

DURCH DEN WALD

(From the German of the Queen of Roumania.)

Through the forest there fluttered a song
Upborne upon airy gay wings;
As the breeze lisps the beech-boughs among
So softly it lit on my strings:
And my harp told the River again:
And the trees and the birds caught the strain:
And the flow'rs set up soft whisperings.

Through the forest came loitering Love:
There was budding and blooming at this:
The birds woke, with welcome, the grove
And the rocks and the springs felt the bliss;
It seemed 'twould be sunshine forever
As the sun shed red gold on the River
While the waves and the bank-buds did kiss.

Through the forest a tempest 'gan roar,
Song and Love in its fury it caught,
And both to the far Sea it bore,
So an end to our singing was brought!
And the River went silently by,
And the gold melted out of the sky,
And the talk of the birds came to naught!