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MISCHIEVOUS JOY. - 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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MISCHIEVOUS JOY.

    • AS a butterfly renew’d,
    • When in life I breath’d my last,
    • To the spots my flight I wing,
    • Scenes of heav’nly rapture past,
    • Over meadows, to the spring,
    • Round the hill, and through the wood.
    • Soon a tender pair I spy,
    • And I look down from my seat
    • On the beauteous maiden’s head—
    • When embodied there I meet
    • All I lost as soon as dead—
    • Happy as before am I.
    • Him she clasps with silent smile,
    • And his mouth the hour improves,
    • Sent by kindly Deities;
    • First from breast to mouth it roves,
    • Then from mouth to hands it flies,
    • And I round him sport the while.
    • And she sees me hov’ring near;
    • Trembling at her lover’s rapture,
    • Up she springs—I fly away.
    • “Dearest! let’s the insect capture!
    • Come! I long to make my prey
    • Yonder pretty little dear!”