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THE MOUNTAIN CASTLE - 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 MOUNTAIN CASTLE

    • THERE stands on yonder high mountain
    • A castle built of yore,
    • Where once lurk’d horse and horseman
    • In rear of gate and of door.
    • Now door and gate are in ashes,
    • And all around is so still;
    • And over the fallen ruins
    • I clamber just as I will.
    • Below once lay a cellar,
    • With costly wines well stor’d;
    • No more the glad maid with her pitcher
    • Descends there to draw from the hoard.
    • No longer the goblet she places
    • Before the guests at the feast;
    • The flask at the meal so hallow’d
    • No longer she fills for the priest.
    • No more for the eager squire
    • The draught in the passage is pour’d;
    • No more for the flying present
    • Receives she the flying reward.
    • For all the roof and the rafters,
    • They all long since have been burn’d,
    • And stairs and passage and chapel
    • To rubbish and ruins are turn’d.
    • Yet when with lute and with flagon,
    • When day was smiling and bright,
    • I’ve watch’d my mistress climbing
    • To gain this perilous height,
    • Then rapture joyous and radiant
    • The silence so desolate broke,
    • And all, as in days long vanish’d,
    • Once more to enjoyment awoke;
    • As if for guests of high station
    • The largest rooms were prepar’d;
    • As if from those times so precious
    • A couple thither had far’d;
    • As if there stood in his chapel
    • The priest in his sacred dress,
    • And ask’d: “Would ye twain be united?”
    • And we, with a smile, answer’d, “Yes!”
    • And songs that breath’d a deep feeling,
    • That touch’d the heart’s innermost chord,
    • The music-fraught mouth of sweet echo,
    • Instead of the many, outpour’d.
    • And when at eve all was hidden
    • In silence unbroken and deep,
    • The glowing sun then look’d upwards,
    • And gaz’d on the summit so steep.
    • And squire and maiden then glitter’d
    • As bright and gay as a lord,
    • She seiz’d the time for her present,
    • And he to give her reward.
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