Flower Pieces and other poems By William Allingham: With two designs by Dante Gabriel Rossetti |
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THE FISHERMAN.
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 | Flower Pieces and other poems |  |
187
THE FISHERMAN.
FROM GOETHE.
The water gushed, the water swell'd;
A Fisherman sat by,
Gazing upon the line he held,
With peaceful heart and eye;
And while he watched in listless mood,
A billow heaved and surged;
And, rustling from the parted flood,
A woman's form emerged.
A Fisherman sat by,
Gazing upon the line he held,
With peaceful heart and eye;
And while he watched in listless mood,
A billow heaved and surged;
And, rustling from the parted flood,
A woman's form emerged.
She sung to him, she spake to him:
‘Why lure my brood away,
By human skill, and human fraud,
Up to the burning day?
Oh, happy live the little fish!
So happy—might'st thou know
This moment 'twere thine only wish
To come to us below.
‘Why lure my brood away,
By human skill, and human fraud,
Up to the burning day?
Oh, happy live the little fish!
So happy—might'st thou know
This moment 'twere thine only wish
To come to us below.
‘Finds not the Sun a resting-place;
The moon, within the mere?
Uplifts not each a radiant face
Grown doubly bright and clear?
Persuade thee not these heav'ns so deep?
This moist, embracing blue?
Thy features, lo! that swim and sleep
In soft eternal dew?’
The moon, within the mere?
Uplifts not each a radiant face
Grown doubly bright and clear?
Persuade thee not these heav'ns so deep?
This moist, embracing blue?
Thy features, lo! that swim and sleep
In soft eternal dew?’
188
The water gush'd, the water swell'd,
It kiss'd his naked feet;
Deep longing all his heart impell'd,
As when our love we meet.
She spake to him, she sang to him;
No help could come between;
Half drew she him, half sunk he in,
And never more was seen.
It kiss'd his naked feet;
Deep longing all his heart impell'd,
As when our love we meet.
She spake to him, she sang to him;
No help could come between;
Half drew she him, half sunk he in,
And never more was seen.
| Flower Pieces and other poems | |