Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Germany: Vols. XVII–XVIII. 1876–79.

Sonnenberg

Impromptu

By Frances Anne Kemble (1809–1893)

Written among the Ruins of the Sonnenberg

THOU who within thyself dost not behold

Ruins as great as these, though not as old,

Canst scarce through life have travelled many a year,

Or lack’st the spirit of a pilgrim here.

Youth hath its walls of strength, its towers of pride,

Love, its warm hearth-stones, hope, its prospects wide,

Life’s fortress in thee, held these, one and all,

As they have fallen to ruin, or shall fall.