The Erlking
A father rides home through wind and darkness with his sick boy held against him, and the boy says a crowned figure in the mist is speaking to him, promising games, bright flowers, his daughters' dancing. The father names each apparition as fog, dry leaves, old willows, and urges the horse on. Eight ballad stanzas from the Sturm und Drang years, set by Schubert at eighteen and since the most sung poem in German.
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Closest analogues
- 45% · 8 shared
- 45% · 8 shared
- 45% · 7 shared
- 40% · 9 shared
- 40% · 8 shared
- 39% · 7 shared