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TO MIGNON. - 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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TO MIGNON.

    • OVER vale and torrent far
    • Rolls along the sun’s bright car.
    • Ah! he wakens in his course
    • Mine, as thy deep-seated smart
    • In the heart,
    • Ev’ry morning with new force.
    • Scarce avails night aught to me;
    • E’en the visions that I see
    • Come but in a mournful guise;
    • And I feel this silent smart
    • In my heart
    • With creative power arise.
    • During many a beauteous year
    • I have seen ships ’neath me steer,
    • As they seek the shelt’ring bay;
    • But, alas, each lasting smart
    • In my heart
    • Floats not with the stream away.
    • I must wear a gala dress,
    • Long stor’d up within my press,
    • For to-day to feasts is given;
    • None know with what bitter smart
    • Is my heart
    • Fearfully and madly riven.
    • Secretly I weep each tear,
    • Yet can cheerful e’en appear,
    • With a face of healthy red;
    • For if deadly were this smart
    • In my heart,
    • Ah, I then had long been dead!