'Durchwachte Nacht'

‘Durchwachte Nacht’, a poem written towards the end of her life by Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, published in Letzte Gaben (1860). In this poem of insomnia attention is concentrated on the noises and movements of the nocturnal world. Each of the first seven stanzas notes in a refrain the striking of the clock from 10 to 4, the final one greets the sunrise.