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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow GYPSY SONG. - Goethe's Works, vol. 1 (Poems)

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GYPSY SONG. - 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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GYPSY SONG.

    • IN the drizzling mist, with the snow high-pil’d,
    • In the Winter night, in the forest wild,
    • I heard the wolves with their ravenous howl,
    • I heard the screaming note of the owl:
    • Wille wau wau wau!
    • Wille wo wo wo!
    • Wito hu!
    • I shot, one day, a cat in a ditch—
    • The dear black cat of Anna the witch;
    • Upon me, at night, seven were-wolves came down,
    • Seven women they were, from out of the town.
    • Wille wau wau wau!
    • Wille wo wo wo!
    • Wito hu!
    • I knew them all; ay, I knew them straight;
    • First, Anna, then Ursula, Eve and Kate,
    • And Barbara, Lizzy and Bet as well;
    • And forming a ring, they began to yell:
    • Wille wau wau wau!
    • Wille wo wo wo!
    • Wito hu!
    • Then call’d I their names with angry threat:
    • “What would’st thou, Anna? What would’st thou, Bet?”
    • At hearing my voice, themselves they shook,
    • And howling and yelling, to flight they took.
    • Wille wau wau wau!
    • Wille wo wo wo!
    • Wito hu!

From Wilhelm Meister.