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Subject Area: Literature

OPEN TABLE. - 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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OPEN TABLE.

    • MANY a guest I’d see to-day,
    • Met to taste my dishes!
    • Food in plenty is prepar’d,
    • Birds, and game, and fishes.
    • Invitations all have had,
    • All propos’d attending.
    • Johnny, go and look around!
    • Are they hither wending?
    • Pretty girls I hope to see,
    • Dear and guileless misses,
    • Ignorant how sweet it is
    • Giving tender kisses.
    • Invitations all have had,
    • All propos’d attending.
    • Johnny, go and look around!
    • Are they hither wending?
    • Women also I expect,
    • Loving tow’rd their spouses,
    • Whose rude grumbling in their breasts
    • Greater love but rouses.
    • Invitations they’ve had too,
    • All propos’d attending!
    • Johnny, go and look around!
    • Are they hither wending?
    • I’ve too ask’d young gentlemen,
    • Who are far from haughty,
    • And whose purses are well-stock’d,
    • Well-behav’d, not naughty.
    • These especially I ask’d,
    • All propos’d attending.
    • Johnny, go and look around!
    • Are they hither wending?
    • Men I summon’d with respect,
    • Who their own wives treasure;
    • Who in ogling other Fair
    • Never take a pleasure.
    • To my greetings they replied,
    • All propos’d attending.
    • Johnny, go and look around!
    • Are they hither wending?
    • Then to make our joy complete,
    • Poets I invited,
    • Who love other’s songs far more
    • Than what they’ve indited.
    • All acceded to my wish,
    • All propos’d attending.
    • Johnny, go and look around!
    • Are they hither wending?
    • Not a single one appears,
    • None seem this way posting.
    • All the soup boils fast away,
    • Joints are over-roasting.
    • Ah, I fear that we have been
    • Rather too unbending!
    • Johnny, tell me what you think!
    • None are hither wending.
    • Johnny, run and quickly bring
    • Other guests to me now!
    • Each arriving as he is—
    • That’s the plan, I see now.
    • In the town at once ’tis known,
    • Ev’ry one’s commending.
    • Johnny, open all the doors:
    • All are hither wending!