The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1886-02-28
For the Appeal.
THE ALPINE CASTLE.

In a sunlit Alpine valley, where tho river
winds its way,
S ands the ruins Of a castle, stained and
lovely, old and gray.
Long years il has stood in silence, mirrore d
in the rivers sheen;
Long, about its broken easements clung the
trailing ivy green,
And the smiles Of summer sunshine, and
the tears of falling showers,
Bind the clasping ivy faster to the mouldy,
cTumbling towers.
All the day, the swallows fitting through
the archways, tall and high,
Build their nests in gloomy turret tops that
seem to touch the sky.
All day long the golden sunbeams dance
about its way in play,
Kiss the lovely, Laughing river, then, as
guilty, spring away,
When from out her robes of azure star
crowned Night the darkness shakes;
When across the Alpine Mountains soft the
moonlight splendOr wakes;
Then the castle gains new beauty as the
shimmering mOonbeams bright
Soften every ruined arch, with their mellow,
glistening light.
Like weird Merlin's magic castle this one
seems enchanted too;
Only here is no fair Gyneh for brave Frier-
main to WOO.
In the years gone by there had been ono as
blithe and fair as she,
And as Friernain knelt TO Gyneth, one to
her had bowed the knee.
She was of Itals daughters, of the proud
De Cont race,
He a German, young and noble, handsome
both in torn and face.
He had left his lordy castle; left his native
mountain home,
For some slight crime he d committed, made
pilgrimage TO Rome.
In that grand, cd classic city, carelessly his
fate he met.
Free his heart was, light and careless, till
he saw fair Nicolette.
Then the blind god drew his arrows, all in
mischief, aimed a. dart,
Straight from NioOlette' . dark eyes, at young
Ffanze's sleeping heart.
Sure its aim and swift its magic, woke each
heart-chord into tune;
Sweet the music Of loves anthem, as the
song OF birds in June.
True loves course ne'er runneth smoothly,
we are by the poets told,
And her father had betrothed her 10 a duke
80 rich, butOld.
So, when Ger the marble columns fell the
Southern moons soft ligh',
Stole she Irem her father palace, with
Franz her trOth 10 plight.
Never hearts or hands more loving clasped,
life's journey long TO share;
Meier at Hymen's sacred altar had there
knelt nobler pair.
She with dark eyes, soft and flashing; his
had caught the yiolel's blue;
She with tress of dusky midnight, he with
hair OF sunshine hue.
So she left her loved Italia, left its golden,
sunny strand,
And together with he' lover, sought this
chilly Alpine land.
There, while the summers golden sunshine
DER the valley brightness threw,
NicOlttte forgot Italia, with its skies so
softly blue.
Like one of the summers sunbeams danced
:, she through the castle bowers.
Made the halls echo with laughter, filed
with song the grim, old towers.
Little thought she that this summer could
Little thought she fwOuld be shadow'd by
the winters surly blast.
Thought not how the Alpine mountains
n would be clad in Offering snow,
Thought not Of the chilly north winds that
!, across the yale would blow.
As the. flowers fade with sum mer, fade meath
autumn 'sfrosty breath,
As the song birds lingering after summer
hies fall cold in death,
So the fair Italian flower in this castle long
Faded in the Alpine valley meath the
winters drifting snow.
With her vanished all the brightness Of her
lovers glad, young life.
Weary grew he of LIES struggle, Of the
world, it's noise, Its strife;
But not long was he thus parted from his
lovely Southern bride,
For soon deaths dark angels bore him
through the still and stirless tide.
So the castle, ruined and olden, with its tur-
rots, dome and keep,
Stands in silence, the lone watcher Of two
- green mounds, where they sleep.
Years have passed, but not forgotten, still
a traveller through the vale,
gazes on the castle and is told the
mournful tale,
-Cdrolee Pleasants.
HUNTSVILLE, Ala.