WALTER VON DER VOGELWEIDE. VOGELWEIDE, the Minnesinger, When he left this world of ours, Laid his body in the cloister, Under Würtzburg-Minster towers. And he gave the monks his treasures, Saying "From these wandering minstrels Let me now repay the lessons They have taught so well and long." Thus the bard of love departed And, fulfilling his desire, On his tomb the birds were feasted Day by day, o'er tower and turret, On the tree, whose heavy branches On the pavement,-on the tombstone,- On the cross-bars of each window, There they sang their merry carols, Till at length the portly abbot Murmured, "Why this waste of food? Be it changed to loaves henceforward For our fasting brotherhood." Then in vain o'er tower and turret, From the walls and woodland nests, When the Minster bells rang noontide, Gathered the unwelcome guests. Then in vain, with cries discordant, Clamourous round the Gothic spire, Screamed the feathered Minnesingers For the children of the choir ! Time has long effaced the inscriptions On the cloister's funeral stones; And tradition only tells us Where repose the poet's bones. But around the vast cathedral, THE BRIDGE. I STOOD on the bridge at midnight, I saw her bright reflection. And far in the hazy distance And the currents that came from the ocean As, sweeping and eddying through them, And, streaming into the moonlight, And like those waters rushing How often, oh, how often, In the days that had gone by, I had stood on that bridge at midnight And gazed on that wave and sky! How often, oh, how often, I had wished that the ebbing tide Would bear me away on its bosom O'er the ocean wild and wide! For my heart was hot and restless, But now it has fallen from me; Throws its shadow over me. |