The Poetry Corner

Honors.

By Friedrich Schiller

[Dignities would be the better title, if the word were not so essentially unpoetical.] When the column of light on the waters is glassed, As blent in one glow seem the shine and the stream; But wave after wave through the glory has passed, Just catches, and flies as it catches, the beam So honors but mirror on mortals their light; Not the man but the place that he passes is bright.