By the Isar at twilight, the speaker and a companion are wandering and singing, then climb a huntsman’s ladder into a fir tree above the marshes. They watch the pale glacier river meet another and hear its cold ringing through the evening. Later they find dark wild roses hanging over the water, with frogs singing and a smell of ice and roses in the air. The speaker feels a mix of closeness, excitement, and unease; the landscape is beautiful but also wild and faintly threatening, and a “glimmering” fear runs through it. Their whispered words—“No one knows us. Let it be as the snake disposes”—suggest a secret, possibly forbidden intimacy, left to chance and to nature. The overall mood is dreamy, secretive, and slightly dangerous.
River Roses — Summary
By the Isar, in the twilight We were wandering and singing, By the Isar, in the evening We climbed the huntsman's ladder and sat swinging In the fir-tree overlooking the marshes, While river met with river, and the ringing Of their pale-green glacier water filled the evening.
By the Isar, in the twilight We found the dark wild roses Hanging red at the river; and simmering Frogs were singing, and over the river closes Was savour of ice and of roses; and glimmering Fear was abroad. We whispered: "No one knows us. Let it be as the snake disposes Here in this simmering marsh."