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THE VIOLET. - 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 VIOLET.

    • EXHALING sweet a violet stood,
    • Retiring, and of modest mood,
    • In truth, a violet fair.
    • Then came a youthful shepherdess,
    • And roam’d with sprightly joyousness,
    • And blithely woo’d
    • With carols sweet the air.
    • “Ah!” thought the violet, “had I been
    • For but the smallest moment e’en
    • Nature’s most beauteous flower,
    • ’Till gather’d by my love, and press’d,
    • When weary, ’gainst her gentle breast,
    • For e’en, for e’en
    • One quarter of an hour!”
    • Alas! alas! the maid drew nigh,
    • The violet fail’d to meet her eye,
    • She crush’d the violet sweet.
    • It sank and died, yet murmur’d not:
    • “And if I die, oh, happy lot,
    • For her I die,
    • And at her very feet!”