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On the Rhine — 6 Comments

  1. Apropos of that photo caption: My grandmother (a schoolteacher in her youth) used to recite a poem by Caroline Norton (1808-1877) titled “Bingen on the Rhine”– though I doubt she knew about the poet’s adulterous relationship with Lord Melbourne, Queen Victoria’s first prime minister.

    First stanza: A soldier of the Legion lay dying in Algiers,
    There was lack of woman’s nursing, there was dearth of woman’s tears;
    But a comrade stood beside him, while his life-blood ebbed away,
    And bent, with pitying glances, to hear what he might say.
    The dying soldier faltered, and he took that comrade’s hand,
    And he said, “I nevermore shall see my own, my native land;
    Take a message, and a token, to some distant friends of mine,
    For I was born at Bingen,–at Bingen on the Rhine.

    You can read the rest of Norton’s poem here: https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/bingen-rhine

    The other association I have with Rhine-related poetry is that old German anti-French song, “Die Wacht am Rhein,” which you can listen to here:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JT-xxcD9_w&ab_channel=FriedaSchmidt

    And its Yale version, “Bright College Years”:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0kMqI9sGRM&t=23s&ab_channel=Dr.Ludwig%27sarchive

  2. I remember Bingen-am-Rhine because my daughter and I stayed at a hotel in an old castle – Schloss Rheinfels (which was absolutely beautiful, and historic, and whose dining room looked out over the river, and honestly, I thought we could have dropped bread rolls down on the railway tracks at the food of the rock cliffs that the hotel and castle ruins were built on). I had to have my old Volvo serviced at a garage in Bingen, while we went sightseeing. We had apparently gotten some bad gasoline at some point, which fouled the engine. The Rhine valley, and the Mosel, too – were beautiful beyond words.

  3. I have now retired from my community college teaching job, but I always taught this poem in my American Literature classes, along with “Paul Revere’s Ride” and “The Wreck of the Hesperus.” These have become classics for a reason.

    “Bingen on the Rhine” is quoted in Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat.” The author says that when he was out at sea in an open boat trying to survive, the poem suddenly meant something to him.

  4. I’m not sure what’s up with the Rhine, but Western reservoirs I can tell you a little about: the Gang Green, years ago, instituted policies for releasing water that assured it would get to this point.

    Everyone knows that the population of the Western States has increased substantially over the past fifty years. So they assume that water consumption has gone up concomitantly. Actually, aggregate water usage in the West is down to about what it was in the mid-sixties. Between more efficient water use commercially and residentially, along with running industry, mining, and agriculture out, the total water used in the West is about what it was in 1965.

    But it’s a DROUGHT!!! Well, yeeeeeesss…

    But there have always been dryer years followed by wetter years followed by dryer years… But as an averaged whole, precipitation has actually gone UP in the past sixty years. We’re in a dryer period right now, but not as dry as the dry period of about fifty years ago.

    What the Gang Green had been doing is basically not allowing reservoirs to hold water when it’s wetter so it’s there in the dryer period. I noticed it this year when I was in Idaho. The nearby reservoir was very low, but the canals were running fast and high in the spring. I’ve never seen the canals that full and far that early. I keep reading about a “drought” in Idaho. But the populated part of the state is also the dryest. And rely on reservoirs and snow melt. Snow this year was better than some years and not as good as others. Which is to say, there should be more water in the reservoir.

    But the Gang Green instituted a policy by which water is released early and often with no regard for reserving it for future drought conditions.

  5. “Even in a world that’s being shipwrecked, remain brave and strong.”
    Hildegard of Bingen

    “Glance at the sun. See the moon and stars. Gaze at the beauty of the green earth. Now think.”
    Hildegard of Bingen

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