| Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888. | | | | The Heart without a Home | | By Gottfried August Bürger (1747–1794) |
| | Translated by Capel Lofft
LONG like a dove by the fierce falcon driven, | |
| Hither and thither wandered sad my Love;— | |
| And simply it imagined, like a dove, | |
| That it had reached at length its tranquil heaven. | |
| Ah, Faith! to fond delusions vainly given; | 5 |
| And Fate! conceived by none but those who prove; | |
| That home from which it dreaded no remove | |
| Is by the instant stroke of lightning riven! | |
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| Hither and thither still it wanders now; | |
| Poor little dove! ’twixt earth and heaven remains | 10 |
| No object for its wing;—the Fates allow | |
| No kindred Heart in solace of its pains; | |
| Not one this desolated Earth contains | |
| That might return its warmth, that might reward its vow. | | | | |
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