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WELCOME AND FAREWELL. - 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.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


WELCOME AND FAREWELL.

    • QUICK throbb’d my heart: to horse! haste, haste!
    • And lo! ’twas done with speed of light;
    • The evening soon the world embrac’d,
    • And o’er the mountains hung the night.
    • Soon stood, in robe of mist, the oak,
    • A tow’ring giant in his size,
    • Where darkness through the thicket broke,
    • And glar’d with hundred gloomy eyes.
    • From out a hill of clouds the moon
    • With mournful gaze began to peer:
    • The winds their soft wings flutter’d soon,
    • And murmur’d in mine awe-struck ear;
    • The night a thousand monsters made,
    • Yet fresh and joyous was my mind;
    • What fire within my veins then play’d!
    • What glow was in my bosom shrin’d!
    • I saw thee, and with tender pride
    • Felt thy sweet gaze pour joy on me;
    • While all my heart was at thy side,
    • And ev’ry breath I breath’d for thee.
    • The roseate hues that Spring supplies
    • Were playing round thy features fair,
    • And love for me—ye Deities!
    • I hope it, I deserv’d it ne’er!
    • But when the morning sun return’d,
    • Departure fill’d with grief my heart:
    • Within thy kiss, what rapture burn’d!
    • But in thy look, what bitter smart!
    • I went—thy gaze to earth first rov’d—
    • Thou follo’dst me with tearful eye:
    • And yet, what rapture to be lov’d!
    • And, gods, to love—what ecstasy!
lf0841-01_figure_024

artist: e. kanoldt.

WELCOME AND FAREWELL.