A king there lived in Thule

Was faithful till the grave,

To whom his mistress, dying,

A golden goblet gave.

Before all things he prized it,

He drained it at every bout,

The tears his eyes o'erflowing

Whene'er he drank thereout.

And when he came to dying,

His towns he reckoned up,

All to his heir he left them --

But not the golden cup!

He sat at the royal banquet

With his knights of high degree,

In the proud hall of his fathers,

In his castle by the sea.

There stood the old carouser

As he drank life's parting glow,

He hurled the hallowed goblet

Into the surf below.

He watched it filling and sinking;

Deep into the sea it sank;

His closed his eyes and never

Again a draught he drank.

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, adapted by Stephen Phillips and J. Comyns Carr

[Public Domain]