--- title: The Old Street Lamp — Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen · full text with trees · page 2 description: The Old Street Lamp, «Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen» by H. C. Andersen: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: Did you ever hear the story of the old street lamp? --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/133/page/2/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/) / The Old Street Lamp # The Old Street Lamp · page 2 [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/133/) **2** - [101](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/133/101/) — The larger pieces were burnt, and the smaller ones the old woman kept for waxing her thread. - [102](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/133/102/) — So there were now candles enough, but it never occurred to any one to put a little piece in the lamp. - [103](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/133/103/) — "Here I am now with my rare powers," thought the lamp, "I have faculties within me, but I cannot share them; they do not know that I could cover these white walls with beautiful tapestry, or change them into noble forests, or, indeed, to anything else they might wish for." - [104](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/133/104/) — The lamp, however, was always kept clean and shining in a corner where it attracted all eyes. - [105](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/133/105/) — Strangers looked upon it as lumber, but the old people did not care for that; they loved the lamp. - [106](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/133/106/) — One day--it was the watchman's birthday--the old woman approached the lamp, smiling to herself, and said, "I will have an illumination to-day in honor of my old man." - [107](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/133/107/) — And the lamp rattled in his metal frame, for he thought, "Now at last I shall have a light within me," but after all no wax light was placed in the lamp, but oil as usual. - [108](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/133/108/) — The lamp burned through the whole evening, and began to perceive too clearly that the gift of the stars would remain a hidden treasure all his life. - [109](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/133/109/) — Then he had a dream; for, to one with his faculties, dreaming was no difficulty. - [110](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/133/110/) — It appeared to him that the old people were dead, and that he had been taken to the iron foundry to be melted down. - [111](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/133/111/) — It caused him quite as much anxiety as on the day when he had been called upon to appear before the mayor and the council at the town-hall. - [112](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/133/112/) — But though he had been endowed with the power of falling into decay from rust when he pleased, he did not make use of it. - [113](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/133/113/) — He was therefore put into the melting-furnace and changed into as elegant an iron candlestick as you could wish to see, one intended to hold a wax taper. - [114](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/133/114/) — The candlestick was in the form of an angel holding a nosegay, in the centre of which the wax taper was to be placed. - [115](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/133/115/) — It was to stand on a green writing table, in a very pleasant room; many books were scattered about, and splendid paintings hung on the walls. - [116](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/133/116/) — The owner of the room was a poet, and a man of intellect; everything he thought or wrote was pictured around him. - [117](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/133/117/) — Nature showed herself to him sometimes in the dark forests, at others in cheerful meadows where the storks were strutting about, or on the deck of a ship sailing across the foaming sea with the clear, blue sky above, or at night the glittering stars. " - [118](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/133/118/) — What powers I possess!" said the lamp, awaking from his dream; "I could almost wish to be melted down; but no, that must not be while the old people live. - [119](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/133/119/) — They love me for myself alone, they keep me bright, and supply me with oil. - [120](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/133/120/) — I am as well off as the picture of the congress, in which they take so much pleasure." - [121](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/133/121/) — And from that time he felt at rest in himself, and not more so than such an honorable old lamp really deserved to be. [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/133/) **2** - ← previous: [What the Old Man Does Is Always Right](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/132/) - next →: [Ole-luk-oie, the Dream-god](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/134/) - ↑ back to [Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg27200/)