Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
France: Vols. IX–X. 1876–79.
Château Boncourt
By Ludolf Adalbert von Chamisso (17811838)A
And I shake my hoary head.
How ye crowd on my soul, ye visions
I thought were forever fled!
A lordly pile elate;
I know those towers and turrets,
The bridges, the massive gate.
The armorial lions show;
I greet each old acquaintance
As in through the arch I go.
There darkly the fig-tree gleams;
’T was yonder, behind those windows,
I was rapt in my earliest dreams.
My ancestor’s hallowed grave;
’T is here, and on yonder pillar
Is hanging his antique glaive.
But a mist is upon my eyes,
Though the light from the painted window
Full on the marble lies.
Thou standest before me now!
Yet thou from the earth art vanished,
And over thee goes the plough.
My fondest blessings on thee!
And a double blessing go with him
That ploughs thee, whoe’er he be.
I will go with my harp in my hand,
And wander the wide world over,
Singing from land to land.