| Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888. | | | | In Memoriam (Theodor Körner) (I.) | | By Christoph August Tiedge (1752–1841) |
| | Translated by Charles T. Brooks
PROUDLY, e’en now, the young oak waved on high, | |
| Hung round with youthful green full gorgeously; | |
| And calmly graceful, and yet bold and free, | |
| Reared its majestic head in upper sky. | |
| Hope said, “How great, in coming days, shall be | 5 |
| That tree’s renown!” Already, far or nigh, | |
| No monarch of the forest towered so high: | |
| The trembling leaves murmured melodiously | |
| As love’s soft whisper; and its branches rung | |
| As if the master of the tuneful string, | 10 |
| Mighty Apollo, there his lyre had hung. | |
| But, ah, it sank. A storm had bowed its pride!— | |
| Alas! untimely snatched in life’s green spring, | |
| My noble youth, the bard and hero, died! | | | | |
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