Classic Poem

(Sung in a circle of intimate Friends.)

Now let us one last bumper drain
To speed our traveller's way,
Who quits anon this quiet plain
In which he saw the day.
He leaves his own ancestral halls,
From loving arms he goes
To the proud capital, whose walls
Whole nations' spoils enclose.
Discord makes pause, the thunders cease,
The very wars repose,
The craters we may sound in peace
From which the lava rose.
May luck thy devious steps attend
Wherever they may roam!
An honest heart did Nature lend,
Oh, bring it honest home!
Lands thou wilt cross which bore the stress
Of war's terrific strain;
Yet now their smiling fields caress
In peace the golden grain.
Old Father Rhine thou willst bestride,
Who never will ignore,
So long his waters seaward glide,
Thine ancestor of yore.
Do homage to the hero's fame,
And pledge the noble Rhine,
Old bulwark of the German name,
In his own matchless wine.
Let German spirit be thy guide,
And fail thee ne'er a jot
When quivering to that other side
Where German faith is not.