THE FIRST WALPURGIS-NIGHT
A DRUID. SWEET smiles the May! The forest gay From frost and ice is freed; No snow is found, Glad songs resound Across the verdant mead. Upon the height The snow lies light, Yet
MAIDEN WISHES
WHAT pleasure to me A bridegroom would be! When married we are, They call us mamma. No need then to sew, To school we ne’er go; Command uncontroll’d, Have maids, whom to scold; Choose
THE EXCHANGE
THE stones in the streamlet I make my bright pillow, And open my arms to the swift-rolling billow, That lovingly hastens to fall on my breast. Then fickleness soon bids it onwards be flowing;
CHRISTEL
My senses ofttimes are oppress’d, Oft stagnant is my blood; But when by Christel’s sight I’m blest, I feel my strength renew’d. I see her here, I see her there, And really cannot tell
THE YOUTH AND THE MILLSTREAM
[This sweet Ballad, and the one entitled The Maid of the Mill’s Repentance, were written on the occasion of a Visit paid by Goethe to Switzerland. The Maid of the Mill’s Treachery, To which
VANITAS! VANITATUM VANITAS!
MY trust in nothing now is placed, Hurrah! So in the world true joy I taste, Hurrah! Then he who would be a comrade of mine Must rattle his glass, and in chorus combine,
THE WEDDING NIGHT
WITHIN the chamber, far away From the glad feast, sits Love in dread Lest guests disturb, in wanton play, The silence of the bridal bed. His torch’s pale flame serves to gild The scene
HANS SACHS' POETICAL MISSION
[I feel considerable hesitation in venturing To offer this version of a poem which Carlyle describes to be ‘a Beautiful piece (a very Hans Sacks beatified, both in character And style), which we wish
RESTLESS LOVE
THROUGH rain, through snow, Through tempest go! ‘Mongst streaming caves, O’er misty waves, On, on! still on! Peace, rest have flown! Sooner through sadness I’d wish to be slain, Than all the gladness Of
THE DILETTANTE AND THE CRITIC
A BOY a pigeon once possess’d, In gay and brilliant plumage dress’d; He loved it well, and in boyish sport Its food to take from his mouth he taught, And in his pigeon he
THE BLISS OF ABSENCE
DRINK, oh youth, joy’s purest ray From thy loved one’s eyes all day, And her image paint at night! Better rule no lover knows, Yet true rapture greater grows, When far sever’d from her
SPIRIT SONG OVER THE WATERS
THE soul of man Resembleth water: From heaven it cometh, To heaven it soareth. And then again To earth descendeth, Changing ever. Down from the lofty Rocky wall Streams the bright flood, Then spreadeth
THE CRITIC
I HAD a fellow as my guest, Not knowing he was such a pest, And gave him just my usual fare; He ate his fill of what was there, And for desert my best
THE WANDERER'S STORM-SONG
[Goethe says of this ode, that it is the only One remaining out of several strange hymns and dithyrambs composed By him at a period of great unhappiness, when the love-affair between Him and
JOY AND SORROW
As a fisher-boy I fared To the black rock in the sea, And, while false gifts I prepared. Listen’d and sang merrily, Down descended the decoy, Soon a fish attack’d the bait; One exultant