Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Germany: Vols. XVII–XVIII. 1876–79.

Prevorst

To the Ghost-Seeress of Prevorst after Her Decease

By Andreas Justinus Kerner (1786–1862)

Translated by J. C. Mangan

FAREWELL!—the All I owe to thee

This breast enshrined shall ever keep:

Mine inner sense upwakes to see

The ghostworld’s clear and wondrous deep.

Where’er thy home, in light or shade,

A spirit still thou wert and art:

O, if my faith shall fail or fade,

Send thou a sign to cheer my heart!

And, since thou soon shalt share the power

Of purer spirits, blesséd, bright,

Sustain me in that fateful hour

When death shall rob mine eyes of light!

Above thy grave-mound blooms and blows

Of all dear flowers the dearest one,

Mute witness of the Saviour’s woes,

Thine own beloved Hypericon.

And that lone flower, blood-hued at heart,

And gold without, from every leaf

Shall nightly to my soul impart

The memory of thy faith and grief.

Farewell!—the world may mock, may rave;

Me little move its words or ways;

Men’s idle scorn he well can brave

Who never wooed their idler praise.

END OF VOL. I.