Up through the ruins of my earthly dreams
I catch the stars of immortality;
What store of joy can lurk in heaven for me?
What other hope feed those celestial gleams?
Can there be other grapes whose nectar streams
For me, whom earth's vine fails? Oh! can it be
That this most hopeless heart again may see
A forehead garlanded, an eye that beams?
Alas! 'tis childhood's dream that vanisheth!
The heaven-born soul that feigns it can return
And end in peace this hopeless strife with fate!
There is no backward step; 'tis only death
Can still these cores of wasting fire that burn,
Can break the chain, the captive liberate.
This work is a translation and has a separate copyright status to the applicable copyright protections of the original content.
| Original: | This work was published before January 1, 1928, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago. |
|---|---|
| Translation: | This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1928. The longest-living author of this work died in 1928, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 94 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works. |