Page:Wallenstein, a drama in 2 parts - Schiller (tr. Coleridge) (1800).djvu/46

24 Most gladly would I give the blood-stain'd laurel For the first violet of the leafless spring, Pluck'd in those quiet fields where I have journey'd!

What ails thee? What so moves thee all at once?

Peace have I ne'er beheld? I have beheld it. From thence am I come hither: O! that fight, It glimmers still before me, like some landscape Left in the distance,—some delicious landscape! My road conducted me thro' countries where The war has not yet reach'd. Life, life, my father My venerable father, Life has charms Which we have ne'er experienc'd. We have been But voyaging along it's barren coasts, Like some poor ever-roaming horde of pirates, That, crowded in the rank and narrow ship, House on the wild sea with wild usages, Nor know aught of the main land, but the bays Where safeliest they may venture a thieves' landing. Whate'er in th' inland dales the land conceals Of fair and exquisite, O! nothing, nothing, Do we behold of that in our rude voyage. OCTAVIO.