There sat one day in quiet, <br />By an alehouse on the Rhine, <br />Four hale and hearty fellows, <br />And drank the precious wine. <br /> <br />The landlord's daughter filled their cups <br />Around the rustic board; <br />Then sat they all so calm and still, <br />And spake not one rude word. <br /> <br />But, when the maid departed, <br />A Swabian raised his hand, <br />And cried, all hot and flushed with wine, <br />'Long live the Swabian land! <br /> <br />'The greatest kingdom upon earth <br />Cannot with that compare; <br />With all the stout and hardy men <br />And the nut-brown maidens there.' <br /> <br />Ha! cried a Saxon, laughing,-- <br />And dashed his beard with wine; <br />' I had rather live in Lapland, <br />Than that Swabian land of thine! <br /> <br />The goodliest land on all this earth, <br />It is the Saxon land! <br />There have I as many maidens <br />As fingers on this hand! <br /> <br />Hold your tongues! both Swabian and Saxon! <br />A bold Bohemian cries; <br />'If there's a heaven upon this earth, <br />In Bohemia it lies. <br /> <br />There the tailor blows the flute, <br />And the cobbler blows the horn, <br />And the miner blows the bugle, <br />Over mountain gorge and bourn. <br /> <br />**** <br /> <br />And then the landlord's daughter <br />Up to heaven raised her hand, <br />And said, Ye may no more contend,-- <br />There lies the happiest land!<br /><br />Henry Wadsworth Longfellow<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-happiest-land-from-the-german/
