St. Helena

Written: in November 1840

First published: in the Telegraph für Deutschland No. 191, November 1840

Signed: Friedrich Oswald

Fragment

You proud pile in the ocean’s solitude,

Grim rock-tomb of a heart as strong as stone

That here on self-made history came to brood

And in Promethean agony died alone —

Black-cowled, you loom above the ocean’s flood,

Of all his many burnt-out candles, one

That God, in need of more illumination,

Kindled to light the work of his creation.

Well might they send the Hero to this place,

Who at the hour of the century’s birth

Lit with his firebolts history’s darkling face

And with his thunder filled all ears on earth,

Until within the walls of cosmic space

The babe’s first cry was lost as it burst forth;

Then Time threw coldly down in cruel jest

Another burnt-out stump to join the rest.