There were sad hearts in a darken’d home,
When the brave had left their bower;
But the strength of prayer and sacrifice
Was with them in that hour.
MIGNON’S SONG.
TRANSLATED FROM GOETHE.
[Mignon, a young and enthusiastic girl, (the character in one of Goethe’s romances, from which Sir Walter Scott’s Fenella is partially imitated,) has been stolen away, in early childhood, from Italy. Her vague recollections of that land, and of her early home, with its graceful sculptures and pictured saloons, are perpetually haunting her, and at times break forth into the following song. The original has been set to exquisite music, by Zelter, the friend of Goethe.]
“Kennst du das Land wo die Citronen bluhn?”
Know’st thou the land where bloom the citron bowers,
Where the gold-orange lights the dusky grove?