The sea-mew mourns shrilly, while ocean
Is growling and heaving its spray;
Thy heart throbs with raging emotion,
Thou lovely water-fay!
“My heart throbs with raging emotion,
“Emotion raging and wild;
“For I love thee with speechless devotion,
“Thou darling human child!”
15.
When I before thy dwelling
At morning happen to be,
I rejoice, my little sweet one,
When thee at thy window I see.
With thy dark-brown eyes so piercing
My figure thou dost scan:
Who art thou, and what ails thee,
Thou strange and sickly man?
“I am a German poet,
“Well known in the German land;
“When the best names in it are reckon’d,
“My name amongst them will stand.
“My little one, that which ails me
“Ails crowds in the German land;
“When the fiercest sorrows are reckon’d,
“My sorrows amongst them will stand.”
16.
The gleam o’er the ocean had faded not,
While the eve’s last rays were flitting;
We sat by the lonely fisherman’s cot,
Alone and in silence sitting.
The waters swell’d, while the mist rose above,
The restless sea-mew was screaming;
From out thine eyes, so full of love,
The tears were quickly streaming.