TO LINA
SHOULD these songs, love, as they fleet,
Chance again to reach thy hand,
At the piano take thy seat,
Where thy friend was wont to stand!
Sweep with finger bold the string,
Then the book one moment see:
But read not! do nought but sing!
And each page thine own will be!
Ah, what grief the song imparts
With its letters, black on white,
That, when breath’d by thee, our hearts
Now can break and now delight!
1800.*
Similar poems:
- TO LIDA THE only one whom, Lida, thou canst love, Thou claim’st, and rightly claim’st, for only thee; He too is wholly […]...
- VANITAS! VANITATUM VANITAS! MY trust in nothing now is placed, Hurrah! So in the world true joy I taste, Hurrah! Then he who […]...
- RULES FOR MONARCHS IF men are never their thoughts to employ, Take care to provide them a life full of joy; But if […]...
- THE GERMAN PARNASSUS in the wares before you spread, Types of all things may be read. ‘NEATH the shadow Of these bushes, On […]...
- BURIAL To the grave one day from a house they bore A maiden; To the window the citizens went to explore; […]...
- MAY LIGHT and silv’ry cloudlets hover In the air, as yet scarce warm; Mild, with glimmer soft tinged over, Peeps the […]...
- WARNING WAKEN not Amor from sleep! The beauteous urchin still slumbers; Go, and complete thou the task, that to the day […]...
- TO THE GRASSHOPPER AFTER ANACREON. [The strong resemblance of this fine poem to Cowley’s Ode bearing the same name, and beginning “Happy insect! […]...
- BEFORE A COURT OF JUSTICE THE father’s name ye ne’er shall be told Of my darling unborn life; “Shame, shame,” ye cry, “on the strumpet […]...
- RINALDO.* [This Cantata was written for Prince Frederick Of Gotha, and set to music by Winter, the Prince singing the part […]...
- FOR EVER THE happiness that man, whilst prison’d here, Is wont with heavenly rapture to compare, The harmony of Truth, from wavering […]...
- THE CHOSEN CLIFF HERE in silence the lover fondly mused on his loved one; Gladly he spake to me thus: “Be thou my […]...
- MAHOMET’S SONG [This song was intended to be introduced in A dramatic poem entitled Mahomet, the plan of which was not carried […]...
- THE PUPIL IN MAGIC I AM now, what joy to hear it! Of the old magician rid; And henceforth shall ev’ry spirit Do whate’er […]...
- 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 […]...
- THE MISANTHROPE AT first awhile sits he, With calm, unruffled brow; His features then I see, Distorted hideously, An owl’s they might […]...
- TO ORIGINALS In these numbers be express’d Meaning deep, ‘neath merry jest. – TO ORIGINALS. A FELLOW says: “I own no school […]...
- PROXIMITY OF THE BELOVED ONE I THINK of thee, whene’er the sun his beams O’er ocean flings; I think of thee, whene’er the moonlight gleams […]...
- THE LOVING ONE ONCE MORE WHY do I o’er my paper once more bend? Ask not too closely, dearest one, I pray For, to speak […]...
- THE RULE OF LIFE IF thou wouldst live unruffled by care, Let not the past torment thee e’er; As little as possible be thou […]...
- MISCHIEVOUS JOY AS a butterfly renew’d, When in life I breath’d my last, To the spots my flight I wing, Scenes of […]...
- THE SWISS ALPS YESTERDAY brown was still thy head, as the locks Of my loved one, Whose sweet image so dear silently beckons […]...
- AT MIDNIGHT HOUR [Goethe relates that a remarkable situation He was in one bright moonlight night led to the composition of this Sweet […]...
- THE METAMORPHOSIS OF PLANTS THOU art confused, my beloved, at, seeing the thousandfold Union Shown in this flowery troop, over the garden dispers’d; Any […]...
- GIPSY SONG IN the drizzling mist, with the snow high-pil’d, In the Winter night, in the forest wild, I heard the wolves […]...
- THE SPRING ORACLE OH prophetic bird so bright, Blossom-songster, cuckoo bight! In the fairest time of year, Dearest bird, oh! deign to hear […]...
- CHARADE Two words there are, both short, of beauty rare, Whose sounds our lips so often love to frame, But which […]...
- CAT-PIE WHILE he is mark’d by vision clear Who fathoms Nature’s treasures, The man may follow, void of fear, Who her […]...
- TABLE SONG [Composed for the merry party already mentioned, On the occasion of the departure for France of the hereditary prince, Who […]...
- SHE CANNOT END WHEN unto thee I sent the page all white, Instead of first thereon inscribing aught, The space thou doubtless filledst […]...