C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Beside the Hearth
By Richard Wagner (18131883)
B
And snow shut in the castle court;
How spring once smiled on mead and brake,
And how she soon would reawake—
A book I read, of ancient make,
Which these good tidings brought me:
Sir Walther of the Vogelweid’,
He was the master who taught me.
And summer days are come again,
What I on winter nights have read,
And all my ancient book hath said,
That echoed loud in forest glade,—
I heard it clearly ringing;
In woodlands on the Vogelweid’,
’Twas there I learnt my singing.
What forest bright,
What book and woodland told me;
What through the poet’s magic might
So subtly did infold me,—
The tramp of horse
In battle course,
In war’s romance,—
I heard in music ringing:
But now the stake is life’s best prize,
Which I must win by singing;
The words and air, if ’t in me lies,
And genius shall but speed me,
As mastersong I’ll improvise:
My masters, pray you, heed me.