Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Germany: Vols. XVII–XVIII. 1876–79.
To the Ghost-Seeress of Prevorst after Her Decease
By Andreas Justinus Kerner (17861862)F
This breast enshrined shall ever keep:
Mine inner sense upwakes to see
The ghostworld’s clear and wondrous deep.
A spirit still thou wert and art:
O, if my faith shall fail or fade,
Send thou a sign to cheer my heart!
Of purer spirits, blesséd, bright,
Sustain me in that fateful hour
When death shall rob mine eyes of light!
Of all dear flowers the dearest one,
Mute witness of the Saviour’s woes,
Thine own beloved Hypericon.
And gold without, from every leaf
Shall nightly to my soul impart
The memory of thy faith and grief.
Me little move its words or ways;
Men’s idle scorn he well can brave
Who never wooed their idler praise.