Author: Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

THIS box, mine own sweet darling, thou wilt find With many a varied sweetmeat’s form supplied; The fruits are they […]

A FAIR bell-flower Sprang tip from the ground; And early its fragrance It shed all around; A bee came thither […]

(* The name of a game, known in English as “Jack’s Alight.”) WE young people in the shade Sat one […]

How plain and height With dewdrops are bright! How pearls have crown’d The plants all around! How sighs the breeze […]

[Composed, when 74 years old, for a Polish lady, who excelled in Playing on the pianoforte.] PASSION brings reason who […]

THOU who comest from on high, Who all woes and sorrows stillest, Who, for twofold misery, Hearts with twofold balsam […]

IF Venus in the evening sky Is seen in radiant majesty, If rod-like comets, red as blood, Are ‘mongst the […]

[The following explanation is necessary, in order To make this ode in any way intelligible. The Poet is supposed to […]

THE warder looks down at the mid hour of night, On the tombs that lie scatter’d below: The moon fills […]

FLY, dearest, fly! He is not nigh! He who found thee one fair morn in Spring In the wood where […]

THE waters rush’d, the waters rose, A fisherman sat by, While on his line in calm repose He cast his […]

IF thou wouldst live unruffled by care, Let not the past torment thee e’er; If any loss thou hast to […]

MANY a day and night my bark stood ready laden; Waiting fav’ring winds, I sat with true friends round me, […]

THERE stands on yonder high mountain A castle built of yore, Where once lurked horse and horseman In rear of […]

As a boy, reserved and naughty; As a youth, a coxcomb and haughty; As a man, for action inclined; As […]

When man had ceased to utter his lament, A god then let me tell my tale of sorrow. WHAT hope […]

To the great archer not to him To meet whom flies the sun, And who is wont his features dim […]

LITTLE leaves and flow’rets too, Scatter we with gentle hand, Kind young spring-gods to the view, Sporting on an airy […]

DAYS full of rapture, Are ye renew’d? Smile in the sunlight Mountain and wood? Streams richer laden Flow through the […]

My neighbour, none can e’er deny, Is a most beauteous maid; Her shop is ever in mine eye, When working […]

IN the deepest nights of Winter To the Muses kind oft cried I: “Not a ray of morn is gleaming, […]

I KNOW not, wherefore, dearest love, Thou often art so strange and coy When ‘mongst man’s busy haunts we move, […]

VAINLY wouldst thou, to gain a heart, Heap up a maiden’s lap with gold; The joys of love thou must […]

MANY good works I’ve done and ended, Ye take the praise I’m not offended; For in the world, I’ve always […]

IF to her eyes’ bright lustre I were blind, No longer would they serve my life to gild. The will […]

A POOL was once congeal’d with frost; The frogs, in its deep waters lost, No longer dared to croak or […]

PAGE. WHERE goest thou? Where? Miller’s daughter so fair! Thy name, pray? MILLER’S DAUGHTER. ‘Tis Lizzy. PAGE. Where goest thou? […]

As at sunset I was straying Silently the wood along, Damon on his flute was playing, And the rocks gave […]

No door has my house, No house has my door; And in and out ever I carry my store. No […]

HARD ’tis on a fox’s traces To arrive, midst forest-glades; Hopeless utterly the chase is, If his flight the huntsman […]