Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Germany: Vols. XVII–XVIII. 1876–79.

Rhine, the River

Beware of the Rhine

By Karl Simrock (1802–1876)

Translated by H. W. Dulcken

BY the Rhine, by the Rhine, dwell not by the Rhine,

My son, I counsel thee fair;

Too beauteous will be that life of thine,

Too lofty thy courage there.

Seest the maidens so frank, and the men all so free,

A noble assembly so bright,

With thy soul all aglow, there ’s the dwelling for thee;

There seem all things fitting and right.

From the stream how they greet thee, the towers in their might,

And the ancient cathedral town,

When thou climbest aloft to the dizzying height,

To gaze on the waters down.

In the river upriseth the nymph from the vale,

And if once she hath on thee smiled,

And if Lorelei sings, with her lips so pale,

My son, thou ’rt forever beguiled.

The glamour of sight and of sound will combine,

Till with shuddering delight thou shalt burn;—

Thou ’lt sing of thy home “By the Rhine, by the Rhine!”

To thine own thou wilt never return!