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CONSTANCY IN CHANGE. - 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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CONSTANCY IN CHANGE.

    • COULD this early bliss but rest
    • Constant for one single hour!
    • But e’en now the humid West
    • Scatters many a vernal shower.
    • Should the verdure give me joy?
    • ’Tis to it I owe the shade;
    • Soon will storms its bloom destroy,
    • Soon will Autumn bid it fade.
    • Eagerly thy portion seize,
    • If thou would’st possess the fruit!
    • Fast begin to ripen these,
    • And the rest already shoot.
    • With each heavy storm of rain
    • Change comes o’er thy valley fair;
    • Once, alas! but not again
    • Can the same stream hold thee e’er.
    • And thyself, what erst at least
    • Firm as rocks appear’d to rise,
    • Walls and palaces thou seest
    • But with ever-changing eyes.
    • Fled forever now the lip
    • That with kisses used to glow,
    • And the foot, that used to skip
    • O’er the mountain, like the roe.
    • And the hand, so true and warm,
    • Ever rais’d in charity,
    • And the cunning-fashion’d form,—
    • All are now chang’d utterly.
    • And what used to bear thy name,
    • When upon yon spot it stood,
    • Like a rolling billow came,
    • Hast’ning on to join the flood.
    • Be then the beginning found
    • With the end in unison,
    • Swifter than the forms around
    • Are themselves now fleeting on!
    • Thank the merit in thy breast,
    • Thank the mould within thy heart,
    • That the Muses’ favor bless’d
    • Ne’er will perish, ne’er depart.