84. In its beautiful simplicity this song has become a folksong, Since it presents many metrical irregularities, the following scansion may be found useful. A dot is used to indicate pitch accent.[*]
[* Transcriber's note: Here represented by 'Y'.]
X — X — X — — XX — X — XX — XX — X — XX — X Y — X — X — X — X — X — X — X — X X — X — X Y — X — X — — XX — X — X — XX — X — XX — X X — X — — X — X — X — X — X — X X — X — X
86. Mörike found the name Rohtraut by chance in an old German lexicon. The full vowel coloring appealed to him and called forth this ballad.
5. TUT etc., dialectic periphrastic conjugation = fischt und jagt.
19. WUNNIGLICH (wonniglich). 22. VERGUNNT (vergönnt)—these archaic forms are in keeping with the tone of the ballad and the patriarchal life at King Ringang's court.
87. Appropriately written in the stately Greek trimeter (iambic verse of six feet). Compare with this poem the closing lines of Keats' Ode to a Grecian Urn:
Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all
Ye know on earth and all ye need to know.
Was aber schön ist, selig scheint es in ihm selbst.
But beauty seems a thing all blessed within itself.
6. SCHLINGT DEN RINGELREIHN, circle about in a round dance.