Anastasus Grün: “The Poetry of Steam”
Excerpt, “The Spirit of German Poetry: A Series of translations from the German Poets, with Critical and Biographical Notices. ” Translated by Joseph Gostick. 1845.
THE POETRY OF STEAM
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I hear sad hymns and downcast faces see—
Our prophet-bards have had a boding dream,
A mournful vision of dear poetry
For ever banished from the earth—by steam!
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What! had your crooked roads, then, such a grace,
That long, straight lines must grieve a Poet’s eye?
Is just five miles an hour the Poet’s pace?
And must not Pegasus attempt to fly?
.
Out with your coach, as in a happier day,
Harness again your gall’d and spavin’d team,
(But keep within the old ruts all the way)
And chase the goddess borne away by steam!
.
Or take a boat and row well (if you can)
After a steamer on the swelling sea,
And never murmur though the waterman
Can tell you nothing of your poetry.
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Or man a ship and every random gust,
Sent from the wind-god catch within your rag,
As gladly as a beggar some stale crust
Takes with a bow and drops into his bag.
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Or, if ’tis calm, ’twill quite poetic be
There, as if ice-bound, on a summer’s day;—
Perhaps a dolphin rising from the sea,
Of poetry may something have to say;
.
While I, along the vine-clad, rocky Rhine,
On a black swan, the steamer, proudly swim,
And, lifting up a cup of golden wine,
Sing loudly human art’s triumphal hymn;
.
And gladly celebrate the master-hand,
That seiz’d the fire-flame, like Prometheus old,
And, through the black shaft ‘mid the grassy land,
Dragg’d up the iron from Earth’s rocky hold;
.
And gave command to both—”ye shall not rest
Till striving man is from his bondage free;
Go, fire, and bear man’s burdens, east and west,
And, wheels of iron, on his errands flee!”
.
See how they go, with thunder, through the land—
Beneath the steam-clouds heavy masses flee;
So marches on an elephantine band,
With towers and battlements, to victory.
.
See, from his seat beneath the shady tree,
The village patriarch from his sleep arise,
And, throwing up his nightcap hastily,
Share in his grandsons’ rapture and surprise!
.
And, ‘mid some fears, he hopes for better days,
For which, in youth, he ventur’d in the fight—
“May this new power,” the village-patriarch prays,
“Establish Fatherland and freedom’s right!”
