Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE LAST GREETING by JOSEPH VON EICHENDORFF

First Line: MY WAY FROM THE WOODS I WAS WENDING
Last Line: AND NOW SHE WILL SEE ME NO MORE.

My way from the woods I was wending:
There stood the old house still.
My love, as of old, was bending
Far over the window-sill.

Another man she has taken,
I was far in the battle's din.
How all has turned out!--Ah, forsaken,
I wish a new war would begin!

Her child at the wayside was playing;
Such likeness to her it bore!
I kissed its red lips while saying:
"God bless thee forevermore!"

But she was frightened: I wandered.
She lingered and gazed after me,
And shook her fair locks and pondered,
And knew not who I might be.

The woods were murmuring gladly,
I stood by a tree on the height;
My hunter's horn I blew sadly:
It throbbed as in dreams through the night.

At morn, when the songbirds dally,
She wept and her heart was sore.
But I was gone far from the valley;
And now she will see me no more.



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