20. DOPPELT SCHÖNER = doppelt schön.
22. DAS FEUCHTVERKLÄRTE BLAU, The azure of the sky transfigured in the water.
30. Then he was doomed. Compare the expression: "he is done for."
14. ERLKÖNIG is a corruption of Elbkönig, i.e., the king of the elves. Notice the difference in the speeches of the three characters: the calm assuaging tone of the father, whose senses seem dead to the supernatural; the luring song of the Erlkönig, that changes abruptly to an impetuous demand; the ever increasing terror of the child till its fear is imparted to the father. The child's speech is driven relentlessly forward by terror; notice the effect of the inversion in 22 and 28: — XX —, etc.
19. FÜHREN DEN NÄCHTLICHEN REIHN, dance the nightly round.
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.