And it chanced that, after this some time, —
     Rohtraut, Beauty Rohtraut, —
     The boy in the Castle has gained access,
     And a horse he has got and a huntsman’s dress,
     To hunt and to fish with the merry Princess;
     And, O! that a king’s son I might be! 
     Beauty Rohtraut I love so tenderly. 
     Hush! hush! my heart.

     Under a grey old oak they sat,
     Beauty, Beauty Rohtraut! 
     She laughs:  ’Why look you so slyly at me? 
     If you have heart enough, come, kiss me.’ 
     Cried the breathless boy, ‘kiss thee?’
     But he thinks, kind fortune has favoured my youth;
     And thrice he has kissed Beauty Rohtraut’s mouth. 
     Down! down! mad heart.

     Then slowly and silently they rode home, —
     Rohtraut, Beauty Rohtraut! 
     The boy was lost in his delight: 
     ’And, wert thou Empress this very night,
     I would not heed or feel the blight;
     Ye thousand leaves of the wild wood wist
     How Beauty Rohtraut’s mouth I kiss’d. 
     Hush! hush! wild heart.’

     The olive branch

     A dove flew with an Olive Branch;
     It crossed the sea and reached the shore,
     And on a ship about to launch
     Dropped down the happy sign it bore.

     ‘An omen’ rang the glad acclaim! 
     The Captain stooped and picked it up,
     ‘Be then the Olive Branch her name,’
     Cried she who flung the christening cup.

     The vessel took the laughing tides;
     It was a joyous revelry
     To see her dashing from her sides
     The rough, salt kisses of the sea.

     And forth into the bursting foam
     She spread her sail and sped away,
     The rolling surge her restless home,
     Her incense wreaths the showering spray.

     Far out, and where the riot waves
     Run mingling in tumultuous throngs,
     She danced above a thousand graves,
     And heard a thousand briny songs.

     Her mission with her manly crew,
     Her flag unfurl’d, her title told,
     She took the Old World to the New,
     And brought the New World to the Old.

     Secure of friendliest welcomings,
     She swam the havens sheening fair;
     Secure upon her glad white wings,
     She fluttered on the ocean air.

     To her no more the bastioned fort
     Shot out its swarthy tongue of fire;
     From bay to bay, from port to port,
     Her coming was the world’s desire.

     And tho’ the tempest lashed her oft,
     And tho’ the rocks had hungry teeth,
     And lightnings split the masts aloft,
     And thunders shook the planks beneath,

     And tho’ the storm, self-willed and blind,
     Made tatters of her dauntless sail,
     And all the wildness of the wind
     Was loosed on her, she did not fail;