| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | The King on the Tower | | By William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863) |
| | From Uhland
‘Da liegen sie alle, die grauen Höhen.’
THE COLD grey hills they bind me around, | |
| The darksome valleys lie sleeping below, | |
| But the winds as they pass o’er all this ground, | |
| Bring me never a sound of woe! | |
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| Oh! for all I have suffer’d and striven, | 5 |
| Care has embitter’d my cup and my feast; | |
| But here is the night and the dark blue heaven, | |
| And my soul shall be at rest. | |
| |
| O golden legends writ in the skies! | |
| I turn towards you with longing soul, | 10 |
| And list to the awful harmonies | |
| Of the Spheres as on they roll. | |
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| My hair is grey and my sight nigh gone; | |
| My sword it rusteth upon the wall; | |
| Right have I spoken, and right have I done: | 15 |
| When shall I rest me once for all? | |
| |
| O blessèd rest! O royal night! | |
| Wherefore seemeth the time so long | |
| Till I see yon stars in their fullest light, | |
| And list to their loudest song? | 20 | | | |
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