The noon was past, the sun was low Yet still we felt his arid glow From the red sand reflected glare Deadened the breeze, and fired the air The open sky was misty grey,
The clouds in mighty masses lay That heaped on the horizon high, Marked Alpine outline on the sky Long had we toiled to gain a brow,
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On which we stood triumphant now
a
While the white mist was certain sign Where took his course the mighty Rhine, Hills in the distant haze were seen,
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And wide expanse of plain between, Whose desert length without a tree,
Was stretched in vast monotony. We drove adown that hill amain We past along the shadeless plain Rested we now where uncontrolled The Rhine his bursting billows rolled,