Theodore Brown Hewitt · 36 of 194

15: O Herrscher in dem Himmelszelt.

O Herrscher in dem Himmelszelt.--(Goed. 15.)

Appeared in Crü.--Runge, 1653, no. 315.

This poem and "Nun ist der Regen hin" (cf. Goed. 17, below) were both written during the Thirty Years' War and inspired by the same occasion. Gerhardt in two instances uses the same set of rhymes:

The long metre lends itself well to English translation, and Kelly in his English version has observed with precision the pleading and melancholy tone of the original.

His last stanza forms by its fervor an even stronger conclusion than Gerhardt's. The alteration from "bis in unsern Tod" to "as long as we may live" is a decided improvement, and more consistent with the thought of the context: