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THE WEDDING NIGHT. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Goethe’s Works, vol. 1 (Poems) [1885]

Edition used:

Goethe’s Works, illustrated by the best German artists, 5 vols. (Philadelphia: G. Barrie, 1885). Vol. 1.

Part of: Goethe’s Works, 5 vols.

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THE WEDDING NIGHT.

lf0841-01_figure_020
    • 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 with mystic sacred glow;
    • The room with incense-clouds is fill’d,
    • That ye may perfect rapture know.
    • How beats thy heart, when thou dost hear
    • The chime that warns thy guests to fly!
    • How glow’st thou for those lips so dear,
    • That soon are mute, and nought deny!
    • With her into the holy place
    • Thou hast’nest then, to perfect all;
    • The fire the warder’s hands embrace
    • Grows, like a night-light, dim and small.
    • How heaves her bosom, and how burns
    • Her face at every fervent kiss!
    • Her coldness now to trembling turns,
    • Thy daring now a duty is.
    • Love helps thee to undress her fast,
    • But thou art twice as fast as he;
    • And then he shuts both eyes at last
    • With sly and roguish modesty.