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Home  »  Poems of Places An Anthology in 31 Volumes  »  On the Rhine Is My Heart

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

Rhine, the River

On the Rhine Is My Heart

By Wolfgang Müller (1816–1873)

Translated by A. Baskerville

ON the Rhine is my heart, where affection holds sway!

On the Rhine is my heart, where encradled I lay,

Where around me friends bloom, where I dreamt away youth,

Where the heart of my love glows with rapture and truth,

O, where I have revelled in song and in wine:

Wherever I go is my heart on the Rhine!

All hail, thou broad torrent, so golden and green,

Ye castles and churches, ye hamlets serene,

Ye cornfields, that wave in the breeze as it sweeps,

Ye forests and ravines, ye towering steeps,

Ye mountains e’er clad in the sun-illumed vine!

Wherever I go is my heart on the Rhine!

I greet thee, O life, with a yearning so strong,

In the maze of the dance, o’er the goblet and song,

All hail, beloved race, men so honest and true,

And maids who speak raptures with eyes of bright blue!

May success round your brows e’er its garlands entwine!

Wherever I go is my heart on the Rhine!

On the Rhine is my heart, where affection holds sway!

On the Rhine is my heart, where encradled I lay,

Where around me friends bloom, where I dreamt away youth,

Where the heart of my love glows with rapture and truth!

May for me your hearts e’er the same jewels enshrine,

Wherever I go is my heart on the Rhine!