Chorus. Then to ALL a glad departure

Peaceful slumbers in the shroud!
Brothers! Mercy speaks aloud
In the SOVEREIGN JUDGE's charter.]

Die Unüberwindliche Flotte. 1786.

THE INVINCIBLE FLEET.

Of this Poem, or the occasion on which it was written, I find no mention by Schiller's biographers. It was probably suggested by the course of his historical reading preparatory to his play of Don Carlos. Everybody knows the celebrated inscription-Afflavit Deus et dissipantur,

SHE comes, proud navy of the southern oceanBeneath her foams the world-wide sea:

With clank of chains, and forms of strange devotion, And thousand thunders, lo! she nears to thee— A floating host of citadels tremendous—

Ne'er did the floods beneath so huge a monster swell. They call her name— "Invincible.'

O'er the affrighted waves she moves stupendous. Terror, that round her waits,

The proud name consecrates.

With silent sweep, majestic flowing,

Old Neptune trembling doth his burthen bear: She, in her womb the World's destruction

stowing,

While storms are lull'd around, moves on in full

career.

Thrice-happy Isle-queen of the sea!

There stands she now, thy bulwarks' strength

opposing

Magnanimous Britannia !-thee

They threat-these galleon squadrons round thee closing.

Woe to thy free-born sons! Descending Swift on their heads, bursts the big cloud impending.

Who hath that noblest jewel for thee wrested, That o'er the nations sets thy conquering throne? Say, was it not thyself the prize contested,

From haughty monarchs greatly won,
The wisest statute-law beneath the sun?-
That great Land-charter which to Kings thy burg-
hers raises,

To burghers lowers the regal height-
And didst thou not thy navy's right

From bloody pirate bands, amidst the world's loud praises,

Achieve in glorious Ocean fight?

Who gave

earth!

it thee?-Blush, nations of the

Who else, but thy brave spirit, and thy good sword's worth?

Unhappy!-these colossal forms fire-sleeting
Survey-and thence presage thy glory's fall!
Gazes in sad suspense the earthly ball—
For thee the hearts of all free men are beating;

Whilst all that's good and beauteous mourns thy

fleeting

Splendours, and partakes thy funeral.

But the Almighty God look'd down

Saw where thy foe's proud lion banners floated-
He saw thy yawning grave wide open frown.
"And shall my Albion (spake he) fall devoted?—
My line of heroes thus expire?

The last rock-barrier 'gainst oppression dire
At once in ruins fall-the strong defence
That guards this Hemisphere be banish'd hence?
Ne'er be this Freedom's paradise o'erthrown-
This refuge tower of Human Virtue shatter'd !"
-The Almighty God hath blown--

And lo! to all the winds the Armada scatter'd !

Der Kampf. 1786.

THE CONFLICT.

THESE broken stanzas-the only portion which Schiller, in his last collection, chose to retain, of a poem originally printed under the untranslateable title of Die Freigeisterei der Leidenschaft, and at three times its present lengthafford melancholy though striking evidence of the unsettled state of the Poet's mind, both as to religious and moral principle, at the date of their composition. His Biographers are at a loss as to the precise circumstances which occasioned the struggle between Passion and Duty here represented; but it is enough to state that both this and the succeeding Poem of " Resignation" appear to have

had their origin in feelings engendered by some unhappy attachment, and tinctured by the spirit of scepticism which marked his transition from the abstract religious principles of his youth, to the philosophical creed of his maturer

years.

"No! I this battle will no longer wage

Stern Duty's giant strife.

The heart's fierce tumult thou canst ne'er assuage-
Then, Virtue! lay not such a load on life.

A vow I've sworn- -yes truly have I sworn it-
Self-conquest to begin.

Behold thy crown! these brows could ne'er have worn it

There, take it back, and leave me free to sin!

The bond we made-be it asunder burst!-
She loves the forfeiture I gladly sign:
Happy, in drunkenness of bliss immers'd,

Who bears his deep fall's shame as light as I bear mine.

She sees the worm corrode my manhood's bloom, And spent, my vernal prime!

Silent admires the self-renouncing deed sublime,
And liberally awards my compensation's doom.

Mistrust this angel Virtue, beauteous spirit!
I'm arm'd to crime by thy soft sympathy.
Not all the boundless realm earth's sons inherit
Contains another, brighter meed than thee.

Resignation. 1786.

THIS, like the preceding Poem, to which it may be regarded as in some measure a sequel, is strongly illustrative of the state of the Poet's mind at the time when it was written, and should be read together with his "Philosophical Letters" by way of commentary. It is observable that these two Poems are the only instances in which Schiller has made his own private circumstances, in any other than the most general manner, the subject of poetry; obviously because he regarded Poetry as too high and too sacred to be made the medium of expression for matters of mere ephemeral interest. It is therefore in a very different, and in a spiritual sense only, that Schiller can be called his own auto-biographer—or, as Madame de Stael has expressed it, that" ses écrits sont lui." The concluding stanzas of this Poem may be further illustrated by comparison with the "Ideal und Leben," written several years later, under the avowed intention of following out the principal topic of "Resignation" according to the System of Philosophy which he had subsequently adopted, and which softens, by spiritualizing, the irreligious tendency of the earlier

Poem.

AND I-I too was in Arcadia born,

And joy through countless years

Had bounteous Nature at my cradle sworn:
And I-I too, was in Arcadia born;

But my short spring hath given me only tears.

Life's May no second festival doth keep.

For me its bloom is shed.