On Re-Reading Certain German Poets
By Madison Julius Cawein
They hold their own, they have no peers
In gloom and glow, in hopes and fears,
In love and terror, hovering round
The lore of that enchanted ground!
That mystic region, where one hears,
By bandit towers, the hunt that nears
Wild through the Hartz; the demon cheers
Of Hackelnberg; his horn and hound
They hold their own.
Dark Wallenstein; and, down the years,
The Lorelei; and, creased with sneers,
Faust, Margaret; the Sabboth sound,
Witch-whirling, of the Brocken, drowned
In storm, through which Mephisto leers,
They hold their own.