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From the German by W. Taylor
RECOVERY,—daughter of Creation too, | |
| Though not for immortality designed,— | |
| The Lord of life and death | |
| Sent thee from heaven to me! | |
| Had I not heard thy gentle tread approach, | 5 |
| Not heard the whisper of thy welcome voice, | |
| Death had with iron foot | |
| My chilly forehead pressed. | |
| ’T is true, I then had wandered where the earths | |
| Roll around suns; had strayed along the paths | 10 |
| Where the maned comet soars | |
| Beyond the armèd eye; | |
| And with the rapturous, eager greet had hailed | |
| The inmates of those earths and of those suns; | |
| Had hailed the countless host | 15 |
| That throng the comet’s disc; | |
| Had asked the novice questions, and obtained | |
| Such answers as a sage vouchsafes to youth; | |
| Had learned in hours far more | |
| Than ages here unfold! | 20 |
| But I had then not ended here below | |
| What, in the enterprising bloom of life, | |
| Fate with no light behest | |
| Required me to begin. | |
| Recovery,—daughter of Creation too, | 25 |
| Though not for immortality designed,— | |
| The Lord of life and death | |
| Sent thee from heaven to me! | |
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