Simon Dach

Dach was however the most gifted of the group, [He was professor of poetry in the university of Königsberg, and also composed chorales] and ranks high among German poets for the sweetness of form and depth of tender contemplative emotion to be found in his verse. A little love-song of his, written when courting the daughter of a neigbbouring clergyman, has become one of the best known of the German popular songs, and is familiar to English readers in Mr. Longfellow's version of "Annie of Tharau."

Of his hymns, many of which are to be found in all German hymn-books, we give the following, written during the long and painful illness which preceded his death:--