HARPER'S

NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE. ·

No. CCXXIII-DECEMBER, 1868.-VOL. XXXVIII.

A Pilgrimage upon the Rhine.

BY JOHN D. SHERWOOD. Illustrated by CHARLES PARSONS.

W

HOE'ER would sing the beauteous RHINE,
Its castled rocks and feudal towers,

And banks all crowned with royal wine,
Where reel the joyous, festal hours,-

Must wreathe his pen with Bacchant grace-
Distill the sun into his song;

With purple joy its movements trace,

And, crowned with leaves, be gentle, strong; Flow, like its stream, in varied rhyme,

And gild his verse with spoils of time.

O'er BINGEN's hills ripe grapes are hung,
Bathing their slopes in purpling mist;
While soft, green girdles, zoning, flung
'Round wall and tower, with amethyst,
Clasp tenderly each shelving ledge,

Hanging their jeweled clusters rare
O'er every rippling field and hedge;

And, crinkling through the loving air, With wavy wealth of murmuring grace Church, hamlet, flood and land enlace. VOL. XXXVIII.-No. 223-1

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by Harper and Brothers, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York.

This Nemesis, whose venging rod
Has scourged to silence grand and lone,

As witnesses to Man and God,

These weeping Magdalens in stone!
Who with mute lips and unshed tears
Stand shamed, yet pardon ever plead
From all the hastening, judging years
Which for the Past now intercede.
Below the waters seethe and rave;
While nimble Echo oft repeats
Each sound that wanders near her cave,
And, like a pulse, vibrates and beats
Against the rocks, which fain would keep

The sounds which climb her wave-washed steep.