There's only one named character in this translation of Fontane's "Die Brück’ am Tay" ("The Bridge by the Tay"): "Johnnie". Johnnie shows up twice in the poem:
Now, mother, away with bad dreams, for, see,
Our Johnnie is coming!—He’ll want his tree.
And
“There’s the bridge still,” says Johnnie. “But that’s all right:
We’ll make it surely out of spite!
Peeking at a copy of the original German text, the same name comes up - "Johnie". It seems there must be some significance to this name, because everyone else in the poem is either referred to in general terms (the "bridgekeeper") or simply not given identifiers (the speakers at the start and end of the poem).
What's the significance of the name "Johnnie" in "The Bridge by the Tay"?
