Once in Elsinore,

At the court of old King Hamlet,

Yorick and his boon companions
Sang these ditties.

Once Prince Frederick's Guard

Sang them in their smoky barracks ;

Suddenly the English cannon

Joined the chorus !

Peasants in the field,

Sailors on the roaring ocean,

Students, tradesmen, pale mechanics,

All have sung them.

Thou hast been their friend

They, alas! have left thee friendless!

Yet at least by one warm fireside

Art thou welcome.

And, as swallows build

In these wide, old-fashioned chimneys,

So thy twittering songs shall nestle

In my bosom,

Quiet, close, and warm,

Sheltered from all molestation,

And recalling by their voices

Youth and travel.

WALTER VON DER VOGELWEIDE.

VOGELWEID the Minnesinger,

When he left this world of ours,

Laid his body in the cloister,

Under Würtzburg's minster towers.

And he gave the monks his treasures, Gave them all with this behest : They should feed the birds at noontide

Daily on his place of rest;

Saying, "From these wandering minstrels

I have learned the art of song;

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
By the children of the choir.

Day by day, o'er tower and turret,
In foul weather and in fair,

Day by day, in vaster numbers,
Flocked the poets of the air.

On the tree whose heavy branches

Overshadowed all the place,

On the pavement, on the tombstone,

On the poet's sculptured face,

M

On the cross-bars of each window,

On the lintel of each door,

They renewed the War of Wartburg,
Which the bard had fought before.

There they sang their merry carols,
Sang their lauds on every side;
And the name their voices uttered
Was the name of Vogelweid.

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.