Friendship may not be united,
Save when soul to soul is plighted:
Full of soul those hours went by me,
Still to souls a bond doth tie me.
Ferryman, I gladly proffer
Thrice the fare that others offer,
Since two spirits thou didst carry
At my side across the ferry.
Longfellow, in his ‘Hyperion,’ has beautifully rendered the spirit of this poem, if he has somewhat missed its cadence.
The fine elegy on the death of Tell belongs to Uhland’s ‘Songs of Freedom,’ Tell’s death is undemonstrative, and he characteristically comes by it, by rescuing a child from a torrent. ‘The Sunken Crown’ stands before it in the collection, probably by way of introduction:—