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THE WALKING BELL. - 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 WALKING BELL.

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    • A CHILD refus’d to go betimes
    • To church like other people;
    • He roam’d abroad, when rang the chimes
    • On Sundays from the steeple.
    • His mother said: “Loud rings the bell,
    • Its voice ne’er think of scorning;
    • Unless thou wilt behave thee well,
    • ’Twill fetch thee without warning.”
    • The child then thought: “High overhead
    • The bell is safe suspended”—
    • So to the fields he straightway sped
    • As if ’twas school-time ended.
    • The bell now ceas’d as bell to ring,
    • Rous’d by the mother’s twaddle;
    • But soon ensu’d a dreadful thing!—
    • The bell begins to waddle.
    • It waddles fast, though strange it seem;
    • The child, with trembling wonder,
    • Runs off, and flies, as in a dream;
    • The bell would draw him under.
    • He finds the proper time at last,
    • And straightway nimbly rushes
    • To church, to chapel, hastening fast
    • Through pastures, plains and bushes.
    • Each Sunday and each feast as well,
    • His late disaster heeds he;
    • The moment that he hears the bell,
    • No other summons needs he.