eyelids,
About my lips earth clave;
With stony heart and forehead
I lay within my grave.

How long I cannot reckon,
I slept in that strait bed;
I woke and heard distinctly
A knocking overhead.

"Wilt thou not rise, my Henry?
The eternal dawn is here;
The dead have re-arisen,
Immortal bliss is near."

"I cannot rise, my darling,
I am blinded to the day.
Mine eyes with tears, thou knowest,
Have wept themselves away."

"Oh, I will kiss them, Henry,
Kiss from thine eyes the night.
Thou shalt behold the angels
And the celestial light."

"I cannot rise, my darling,
My blood is still outpoured
Where thou didst wound my heart once
With sharp and cruel word."

"I'll lay my hand, dear Henry,
Upon thy heart again.
Then shall it cease from bleeding.
And stilled shall be its pain."

"I cannot rise, my darling,
My head is bleeding--see!
I shot myself, thou knowest,
When thou wast reft from me."

"Oh, with my hair, dear Henry,
I'll staunch the cruel wound,
And press the blood-stream backward;
Thou shalt be whole and sound."

So kind, so sweet she wooed me,
I could not say her nay;
I tried to rise and follow,
And clasp my loving may.

Then all my wounds burst open,
From head and breast outbreak
The gushing blood in torrents--
And lo, I am awake!

SONG.

Death comes, and now must I make known
That which my pride eternally
Prayed to withhold; for thee, for thee,
My heart has throbbed for thee alone.

The coffin waits! within my grave
They drop me soon, where I shall rest.
But thou, Marie, shalt beat thy breast,
And think of me, and weep and rave.

And thou shalt wring thy hands, my friend.
Be comforted! it is our fate,
Our human fate, the good and great
And fair must have an evil end.

HOMEWARD BOUND.

1823-1824.

TO
FREDERIKA VARNHAGEN VON ENSE,

THE SONGS OF
HOMEWARD BOUND
ARE DEDICATED IN JOYFUL HOMAGE BY THE AUTHOR
HEINRICH HEINE.

HOMEWARD BOUND.

I.

In my life, too full of shadows,
Beamed a lovely vision bright.
Now the lovely vision's vanished,
I am girt about by night.

Little children in the darkness
Feel uneasy fears erelong,
And, to chase away their terrors,
They will sing aloud a song.

I, a foolish child, am singing
Likewise in th