New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-09-03
SVABIAN STORIES.
TUTON'S NEW BOOK.

nv Mr. Theodore 1Ilton-a volume containin
eighteen poems on Swabian themes. The oil
Swabia. now Wurtemberg, is land full OF roman
tic and heroic associations which are peculiarly
susceptible to poetic treatment. The following
nocms are excellent examples of Mr.. Tiltons new
work:
THE ROMANCE OF THE ROTHENBERG.
d. 1S19-1s64.
Aloft. where the Swabian h-tOps are serried,
The Swabans carried their KING 10 DC ourieu'
His tomb on the ROthenberg hlgh
Is capped by the clouds of the sky.
Not first for himself did he fashion and build i
he bride of his Youth was the tenant who filled it
Ere he, in his age, W hen he died,
Was carried and laid at her Sldc.
He built 1t for love. yet it bazons his glory;
For all who behold it, or hear OF the story,
Give honor as honor Is due,
To love and a lover so true.
His castles may cruInble his bridges grow rotten
His laws and his statecraft may All po loieot'ehi
The thoughts of the world are on things
More vital than ashes OF kings
The past is dream, and is dim to the present;
Yet never shall Swabas noble or peasant
Forget. while her hills are green,
The love Of the king for the queen.
So list TO the tale Of the sepulchers founder,
How William, who welded Katrina, and crowned
Adored, in the queen on the throne,
The salntlicst wife ever known.
VII.
She prayed. and gave aims, till the needy and
lOwly
Declared that princess. so humble and holy
Around her. wherever she passed,
The Odor of sanctity cast
VIII.
The king of a different metal was moulded;
lie laughed. and he revelled; he sWore, and he
Ie bo 9ef,Sl of having no faint
That lIkened him unto a saint
1t never is strange IN a registering sinner
To love a good woman, and WOO her. and win her !;
And well knew the monarch the worth
OF such a good angel on EARTH
O death in thy havoc how seldom thon sparest
The uobest and brightest the sweetest and rareSt
How often thy cruellest dart
Flies first at the kindliest heart!
The queen. in her palace, was mortally stricken;
The king In his anguish AT seeing her slcken,
Kept hoping, yet hoping IN vain,
And wnthed with passionate pain.
XII.
To love and to lose is the loss of losses;
TO love and 10 lose is the cross OF crosses;
The shadow of death must fall
On hovel and klngy hall.
As pale as the pillow whereon she was lying,
- My liege" said the queen the day of her dying
&" In death shall be, as in life,
Forever and ever your wife.
XIV.
" Wherever you lay me, continue to love nc.
And if there shall ever be marble above me-
o promise me now on your oath.
one tomb shall lie built for us both.
" Make choice OF resting place. quiet and lonely
Where we two together-we twain, and we only
Far of from the other dead
May lie in the self bed
Though long be the years You may linger behind
Yet seek me at last and be certain to find inc.
And mingle with mihe your clay
TO wait for the Judgment Day."
XVII.
The king, at her bedside, with signing and sobbmg,
With hand OH his heart that was brokenly throb-
bling,
The pledge of his honor gave
To sleep in Katrinas grave.
XVIII.
Aloft where the clouds on the Rothenberg rested,
He made her a grave where the eagles had nested;
a sepulcher high OH hill,
Where all but the wind was still.
XIX.
Encircling the summit wherein she rep0ses,
lie planted hedgerOw of lilies and roses,
Aud built, i'll a gTdle Of bloom,
temple to cover her tomb.
III Oh over the dome and afar behOlden,
There QlItterS cross with "A uSteT GOLDEN
cross that forever shines
On twenty green valleys of vines.
XXI.
The stork, from the village if weary of flying,
Will tarry to rest where Katrina Is lying
And perch on the holy rood,
And sleep IN the solitude.
Within is chapel, with chancel and altar;
And thrice in year with a censor and psalter,
priest, at the break of day,
Goes thitheT TO kneel and pray.
XIII.
Whenever at mathis, he chants tho TIE Deum,
The melody floats from the mausOleum
As over the desert Is borne
The music of MemnOn at morn.
Writ over the sepulcher's ponderous portal
IRE letters to teach that the soul is immortal,
And love, AS the Scriptures say.
Endureth forever and aye.
XIV.
{ ever the dead have the gift of divining,
his luminous hope to Katrina was shining
As haply a sunbeam had slipped
From heaven down into her crypt.
XVI.
he king, though he mourned her. yet very soon
after
Vent back to his Aagon, his dance and his laughter,
And played at the perilOus sport
OF smiling danes of his court.
XVII.
What wonder, when ladies of folly and fashion
o basked in the smile OF a sOyercign's passion,
That some, as the stories 90.
Said oftener yes than no.
XVIII.
ut fancy, though fond of a new direction,
prone to return To its first affections