ANASTASIUS GRÜN: “THE RING”
Excerpt, “The Poetry of Germany, Consisting from Upwards of Seventy of the Most Celebrated Poets.” Translated into English Verse by Alfred Baskerville. 1853.

THE RING
.
I sat upon a mountain,
Far from my native land,
Beneath me upland ridges,
Dales, corn and meadow land!
.
The ring from off my finger
In dreamy thought I drew,
The pledge of love she gave me.
When last we bade adieu.
.
Before mine eye I held it,
Like a telescope unfurled,
And through its little circle
Gazed down upon the world.
.
Ye smiling verdant mountains,
Ye gold fields of corn,
No, ne’er did fair picture
A fairer frame adorn!
.
Here cottages gleam brightly,
On verdant slope and hill,
There scythe and sickle gleaming
Beside the valley’s rill.
.
And yonder plain, where proudly
The foaming torrent swells,
Beyond, blue granite mountains,
The frontier’s sentinels.
.
And towns with gleaming steeples,
Woods clad in verdure’s prime,
And clouds that, like my longing,
Flee to a distant clime.
.
As by a frame surrounded,
My golden circle spanned,
The earth and Heaven’s azure,
Man and his dwelling land.
.
Fair picture, thus to gaze on,
By love’s gold circle spanned.
The earth and Heaven’s azure,
Man and his dwelling land.