Page:The Earliest English Translations of Bürger's Lenore - A Study in English and German Romanticism - Emerson (1915).djvu/84

Now redd'ning tints the skies adorn,
And streaks of gold proclaim the morn;
The night is chas'd away.
The sun ascends, new warmth he gives,
New hope, new joy; all nature lives,
And hails the glorious day.^[1]

No more are dreadful phantoms near;
Love, and his smiling train appear;
They cull each sweetest flow'r,
To scatter o'er the path of youth,
To deck the bridal bed, when Truth
And Beauty own their pow'r.

Ah,—could your pow'r avert the blast
Which threatens Bliss!—could passion last!
Ye dear enchanters tell;
What purer joy could Heaven bestow,
Than when with shar'd affection's glow,
Our panting bosoms swell?^[2]

Sweet spirits! wave the airy wand,
Two faithful hearts your care demand;
Lo! bounding o'er the plain,
Led by your charm, a youth returns;
With hope, his breast impatient burns;
Hope is not always vain.

"Wake, Leonora—wake to love!
For thee, his choicest wreath he wove."
Death vainly aim'd his Dart.
The Past was all a dream; she woke—
He lives;—'twas William's self who spoke,
And clasp'd her to his Heart.^[3]

---

1. Manuscript, in fourth line, life for warmth.
2. Manuscript, first line, their power; second line, When Bliss awaits.
3. The manuscript alterations of the first edition would seem to indicate that the two stanzas preceding the last were not at first intended to be a part of the poem. The last, as we have it above, immediately followed that beginning,

   No more are dreadful phantoms near.

   Later the following stanza was pencilled after that beginning, "Wake, Leonora":
   Lo, when from far a youth returns,
   Led by your charms his bosom burns,
   Sweet spirit, wave your wands;
   Can heaven a purer bliss bestow,
   Than when with shar'd affection's glow
   The panting heart expands?
   
   
   Still later this was expanded into two stanzas, and they were placed before that which now closes the poem.