20. and rock thee and dance thee and sing thee to sleep.
28. Erlking has done me grievous woe.
15. Suggested by the Staubbach, a cascade near Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland (October 1779). The poem compares human life in its various aspects to a stream. Notice in this connection how the rhythm varies from stanza to stanza.
12. WOLKENWELLEN, cloudlike waves.
24. HIN, along.
26. WEIDEN, let graze or feast, i.e., mirror.
30. MISCHT VOM GRUND AUS, stirs from the very bottom.
16. Willing surrender, contented submission to the will of the Highest is the keynote of this poem.
9. childlike thrills of awe.
40, 41. IHRES DASEINS. Ihres refers to Geschlechter. To make it refer to Götter (and adopting the variant reading sie[i.e., Götter ] instead of sich ) makes an impossible metaphor, since the picture of a chain with its links cannot describe the eternal and changeless life of the gods, but only human life, generation following generation as link on link in a chain. Compare 31, where Goethe has used Wellen with the same purport.