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Home  »  The World’s Best Poetry  »  Song of the Silent Land

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.

VII. Death: Immortality: Heaven

Song of the Silent Land

Johann Gaudenz von Salis-Seewis (1762–1834)

Translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“Das stille Land”

INTO the Silent Land!

Ah, who shall lead us thither?

Clouds in the evening sky more darkly gather,

And shattered wrecks lie thicker on the strand.

Who leads us with a gentle hand

Thither, oh, thither,

Into the Silent Land?

Into the Silent Land!

To you, ye boundless regions

Of all perfection! Tender morning-visions

Of beauteous souls! The future’s pledge and band!

Who in life’s battle firm doth stand

Shall bear hope’s tender blossoms

Into the Silent Land!

O Land! O Land!

For all the broken-hearted

The mildest herald by our fate allotted

Beckons, and with inverted torch doth stand

To lead us with a gentle hand

Into the land of the great departed,

Into the Silent Land!