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THE SHEPHERD’S LAMENT. - 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 SHEPHERD’S LAMENT.

    • ON yonder lofty mountain
    • A thousand times I stand,
    • And on my staff reclining,
    • Look down on the smiling land.
    • My grazing flocks then I follow,
    • My dog protecting them well;
    • I find myself in the valley,
    • But how, I scarcely can tell.
    • The whole of the meadow is cover’d
    • With flowers of beauty rare;
    • I pluck them, but pluck them unknowing
    • To whom the offering to bear.
    • In rain and storm and tempest,
    • I tarry beneath the tree,
    • But clos’d remaineth yon portal;
    • ’Tis all but a vision to me.
    • High over yonder dwelling,
    • There rises a rainbow gay;
    • But she from home hath departed,
    • And wander’d far, far away.
    • Yes, far away hath she wander’d,
    • Perchance e’en over the sea;
    • Move onward, ye sheep, then, move onward!
    • Full sad the shepherd must be.
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