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Home  »  The World’s Best Poetry  »  The Palm and the Pine

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.

I. Disappointment in Love

The Palm and the Pine

Heinrich Heine (1797–1856)

From the German by Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton

BENEATH an Indian palm a girl

Of other blood reposes;

Her cheek is clear and pale as pearl

Amid that wild of roses.

Beside a northern pine a boy

Is leaning fancy-bound,

Nor listens where with noisy joy

Awaits the impatient hound.

Cool grows the sick and feverish calm,

Relaxed the frosty twine,—

The pine-tree dreameth of the palm,

The palm-tree of the pine.

As soon shall nature interlace

Those dimly-visioned boughs,

As these young lovers face to face

Renew their early vows.