DAS SCHLOSS AM MEER.

HAST thou beheld that castle,

The high castle by the sea?

Golden and red thereover

Sail the clouds noiselessly.

And to the mirror'd waters

Full fain would it bend low -

To the gay clouds of evening

Full fain would rise and go.

"Sure have mine eyes beheld it,

That castle by the sea,

And the moon thereover floating,

And the mist about it free."

The breezes, the ocean billows,

Echoed they sweet and strong?

Heard'st thou from the spacious chambers

Banquet and festal song?

"The winds and the waves together

Lay in unshaken rest;

From the hall a song of mourning

Heard I with tears opprest."

Didst thou behold ascending

The queen and the king so bold, -

The flutter of crimson mantles,

The glitter of crowns of gold?

Came there not forth beside them

With joy a maiden there,

Even as the sun most glorious,

With a halo of golden hair?

"Certes I saw the parents,

Tho' no crowns shone splendidly;

Black were their robes of sorrow : -

The girl I could not see!"