Still I, my birthland nigh

Would have my body lie.

Let near the entrance to my grave

Cheerful youth be in play engaged,

And let indifferent creation

With beauty shine there eternally.

1829.

RIGHTS.

NOT dear I prize high-sounding rights

By which is turned more head than one;

Not murmur I that not granted the Gods to me

The blessed lot of discussing fates,

Of hindering kings from fighting one another;

And little care I whether free the press is.

All this you see are words, words, words

Other, better rights, dear to me are;

Other, better freedom is my need....

To depend on rulers, or the mob -

Is not all the same it? God be with them!

To give account to none; to thyself alone

To serve and please; for power, for a livery

Nor soul, nor mind, nor neck to bend:

Now here, now there to roam in freedom

Nature's beauties divine admiring,

And before creations of art and inspiration

Melt silently in tender ecstasy -

This is bliss, these are rights!...

THE GYPSIES.

OVER the wooded banks,

In the hour of evening quiet,

Under the tents are song and bustle

And the fires are scattered.

Thee I greet, O happy race!

I recognize thy blazes,

I - myself at other times

These tents would have followed.