The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• The Life of Goethe By Hjalmar H. Boyesen, Ph.d.
• Poems
• Dedication.
• Songs
• Sound, Sweet Song.
• To the Kind Reader.
• The New Amadis
• When the Fox Dies, His Skin Counts.
• The Heathrose.
• Blindman’s Buff.
• Christel.
• The Coy One.
• The Convert.
• Preservation.
• The Muses’ Son.
• Found.
• Like and Like.
• Reciprocal Invitation to the Dance.
• Self-deceit.
• Declaration of War.
• Lover In All Shapes.
• The Goldsmith’s Apprentice.
• Joy and Sorrow.
• March.
• Answers In a Game of Questions.
• Different Emotions On the Same Spot.
• Who’ll Buy Gods of Love?
• The Misanthrope.
• True Enjoyment.
• Happiness and Vision.
• The Farewell.
• The Beautiful Night.
• Apparent Death.
• Proximity.
• Living Remembrance.
• The Bliss of Absence.
• To Luna.
• The Wedding Night.
• Mischievous Joy.
• Farewell.
• The Exchange.
• November Song.
• To the Chosen One.
• First Loss.
• After-sensations.
• Proximity of the Beloved One.
• Presence.
• To the Distant One.
• By the River.
• Night Song.
• Calm At Sea.
• The Prosperous Voyage.
• Courage.
• Admonition.
• Welcome and Farewell.
• New Love, New Life.
• To Belinda.
• May Song.
• With a Painted Ribbon.
• With a Golden Necklace.
• To Charlotte.
• On the Lake.
• From the Mountain.
• Flower Salute.
• May Song.
• Premature Spring.
• Autumn Feelings
• Restless Love.
• The Shepherd’s Lament.
• Comfort In Tears.
• Longing.
• To Mignon.
• The Mountain Castle
• The Spirit’s Salute.
• To a Golden Heart That He Wore Round His Neck.
• The Bliss of Sorrow.
• The Wanderer’s Night-song.
• The Same.
• To the Moon.
• The Hunter’s Even-song.
• My Only Property.
• To Lina.
• Familiar Songs
• On the New Year.
• Anniversary Song.
• The Spring Oracle.
• The Happy Couple.
• Song of Fellowship.
• Constancy In Change.
• Table Song.
• Wont and Done.
• General Confession.
• Coptic Song.
• Another.
• Vanitas! Vanitatum Vanitas!
• Swiss Song.
• Fortune of War.
• Open Table.
• The Reckoning.
• Ergo Bibamus!
• Epiphanias.
• Finnish Song.
• Gypsy Song.
• From Wilhelm Meister.
• Mignon.
• The Same.
• The Harper.
• Philine.
• Ballads
• Mignon.
• The Harper.
• Ballad of the Banished and Returning Count.
• The Violet.
• The Faithless Boy.
• The Erl-king.
• Johanna Sebus
• The Fisherman.
• The King of Thule.
• The Beauteous Flower. Song of the Imprisoned Count.
• Sir Curt’s Wedding-journey.
• Wedding Song.
• The Treasure-digger.
• The Rat-catcher.
• The Spinner.
• Before a Court of Justice.
• The Page and the Miller’s Daughter.
• The Youth and the Millstream.
• The Maid of the Mill’s Treachery.
• The Maid of the Mill’s Repentance.
• The Traveller and the Farm-maiden.
• Effects At a Distance.
• The Walking Bell.
• Faithful Eckart.
• The Pupil In Magic.
• The Dance of Death.
• The Bride of Corinth.
• The God and the Bayadere. an Indian Legend.
• The Pariah. the Pariah’s Prayer.
• Legend.
• The Pariah’s Thanks.
• The First Walpurgis-night.
• Death-lament of the Noble Wife of Asan Aga.
• Antiques
• Leopold, Duke of Brunswick. 1785.
• To the Husbandman.
• Anacreon’s Grave.
• The Brethren.
• Measure of Time.
• Warning.
• SakÓntala.
• Solitude.
• The Chosen Cliff.
• The Consecrated Spot.
• The Instructors.
• The Unequal Marriage.
• Excuse.
• The Muse’s Mirror.
• PhŒbus and Hermes.
• The New Amor.
• The Garlands.
• The Swiss Alps.
• Elegies
• Roman Elegies.
• Alexis and Dora.
• Epigrams
• Venice, 1790.
• The Four Seasons.
• Spring.
• Summer.
• Autumn.
• Winter.
• Sonnets.
• The Friendly Meeting.
• In a Word.
• The Maiden Speaks.
• Growth.
• Food In Travel.
• Departure.
• The Loving One Writes.
• The Loving One Once More.
• She Cannot End.
• Nemesis.
• The Christmas-box.
• The Warning.
• The Doubters and the Lovers.
• The Epochs.
• Charade.
• Miscellaneous Poems.
• The German Parnassus.
• Mahomet’s Song.
• Spirit Song Over the Waters.
• My Goddess.
• Winter Journey Over the Hartz Mountains.
• To Father Kronos.
• The Wanderer’s Storm-song.
• The Sea-voyage.
• Prometheus.
• The Eagle and Dove.
• Ganymede.
• The Boundaries of Humanity.
• The Godlike.
• Royal Prayer.
• Human Feelings.
• Lily’s Menagerie.
• Love’s Distresses.
• To His Coy One.
• Petition.
• The Musagetes.
• Morning Lament.
• The Visit.
• The Magic Net.
• The Goblet.
• Night Thoughts.
• To Lida.
• Forever.
• From an Album of 1604.
• To the Rising Full Moon.
• Betrothed.
• At Midnight Hour.
• Lines On Seeing Schiller’s Skull.
• Trilogy of Passion.
• To Werther.
• Elegy.
• Atonement.
• April.
• May.
• June.
• Ever and Everywhere.
• Next Year’s Spring.
• Such, Such Is He Who Pleaseth Me.
• St. Nepomuk’s Eve. Carlsbad, May 15, 1820.
• The Freebooter.
• Reciprocal.
• Song of the Emigrants.
• Explanation of an Ancient Woodcut Representing Hans Sachs’ Poetical Mission.
• Thoughts On Jesus Christ’s Descent Into Hell.
• Art
• The Drops of Nectar.
• The Wanderer.
• Love As a Landscape-painter.
• Artist’s Evening Song.
• Parables
• Explanation of an Antique Gem.
• Cat-pie.
• Legend.
• The Critic.
• Authors.
• The Dilettante and the Critic.
• Celebrity.
• The Yelpers.
• The Wrangler.
• Joy.
• Playing At Priests.
• Songs.
• Poetry.
• A Parable.
• Cupid and Psyche.
• The Death of the Fly.
• By the River.
• The Fox and Crane.
• The Fox and Huntsman.
• The Stork’s Vocation.
• The Frogs.
• The Wedding.
• Burial.
• Threatening Signs.
• The Buyers.
• The Mountain Village.
• Symbols.
• Three Palinodias.
• Valediction.
• The Country Schoolmaster.
• The Legend of the Horseshoe.
• Epigrams.
• To Originals.
• The Soldier’s Consolation.
• Genial Impulse.
• Neither This Nor That.
• The Way to Behave.
• The Best.
• As Broad As It’s Long.
• Calm At Sea.
• The Rule of Life.
• The Same, Expanded.
• The Fair At Huehenefeld. July 25th, 1814.
• The Little Girl’s Wish.
• Epitaph.
• Admonition.
• My Only Property.
• Old Age.
• Courage.
• Rule For Monarchs.
• Memories.
• Paulo Post Futuri.
• The Fool’s Epilogue.
• On the Divan.
• God and World.
• Prooemion.
• The Metamorphosis of Plants.
• The Sages and the People.
• Rhymed Distichs.
• God, Soul and World.
• Distichs.
• West-eastern Divan.
• Moganni Nameh.
• Hafis Nameh.
• Uschk Nameh.
• Teskir Nameh.
• Rendsch Nameh.
• Hikmet Nameh.
• Timur Nameh.
• Suleika Nameh.
• Safi Nameh.
• Mathal Nameh.
• Parsi Nameh.
• Chuld Nameh.
• Hermann and Dorothea
• Fate and Sympathy.
• Hermann.
• The Burghers.
• Mother and Son.
• The Cosmopolite.
• The Age.
• Dorothea.
• Hermann and Dorothea.
• Conclusion.

THE BRIDE OF CORINTH.

• • ONCE a stranger youth to Corinth came,
  • Who in Athens liv’d, but hop’d that he
  • From a certain townsman there might claim,
  • As his father’s friend, kind courtesy.
  • Son and daughter, they
  • Had been wont to say
  • Should thereafter bride and bridegroom be.
• • But can he that boon so highly priz’d,
  • Save ’tis dearly bought, now hope to get?
  • They are Christians and have been baptiz’d,
  • He and all of his are heathens yet.
  • For a newborn creed,
  • Like some loathsome weed,
  • Love and truth to root out oft will threat.
• • Father, daughter, all had gone to rest,
  • And the mother only watches late;
  • She receives with courtesy the guest,
  • And conducts him to the room of state.
  • Wine and food are brought,
  • Ere by him besought;
  • Bidding him good-night, she leaves him straight.
• • But he feels no relish now, in truth,
  • For the dainties so profusely spread;
  • Meat and drink forgets the wearied youth,
  • And, still dress’d, he lays him on the bed.
  • Scarce are clos’d his eyes,
  • When a form in-hies
  • Through the open door with silent tread.
• • By his glimmering lamp discerns he now
  • How, in veil and garment white array’d,
  • With a black and gold band round her brow,
  • Glides into the room a bashful maid.
  • But she, at his sight,
  • Lifts her hand so white,
  • And appears as though full sore afraid.
• • “Am I,” cries she, “such a stranger here,
  • That the guest’s approach they could not name?
  • Ah, they keep me in my cloister drear,
  • Well nigh feel I vanquish’d by my shame.
  • On thy soft couch now
  • Slumber calmly thou!
  • I’ll return as swiftly as I came.”
• • “Stay, thou fairest maiden!” cries the boy,
  • Starting from his couch with eager haste:
  • “Here are Ceres’, Bacchus’ gifts of joy;
  • Amor bringest thou, with beauty grac’d!
  • Thou art pale with fear!
  • Lov’d one, let us here
  • Prove the raptures the Immortals taste.”
• • “Draw not nigh, O youth! afar remain!
  • Rapture now can never smile on me;
  • For the fatal step, alas! is ta’en,
  • Through my mother’s sick-bed phantasy.
  • Cur’d, she made this oath:
  • ‘Youth and nature both
  • Shall henceforth to Heav’n devoted be.’
• • “From the house, so silent now, are driven
  • All the gods who reign’d supreme of yore;
  • One Invisible now rules in heaven,
  • On the cross a Saviour they adore.
  • Victims slay they here,
  • Neither lamb nor steer,
  • But the altars reek with human gore.”
• • And he lists, and ev’ry word he weighs,
  • While his eager soul drinks in each sound:
  • “Can it be that now before my gaze
  • Stands my lov’d one on this silent ground?
  • Pledge to me thy troth!
  • Through our father’s oath,
  • With Heav’n’s blessing will our love be crown’d.”
• • “Kindly youth, I never can be thine!
  • ’Tis my sister they intend for thee.
  • When I in the silent cloister pine,
  • Ah, within her arms remember me!
  • Thee alone I love,
  • While love’s pangs I prove;
  • Soon the earth will veil my misery.”
• • “No! for by this glowing flame I swear,
  • Hymen hath himself propitious shown:
  • Let us to my father’s house repair,
  • And thou’lt find that joy is not yet flown.
  • Sweetest, here then stay,
  • And without delay
  • Hold we now our wedding-feast alone!”
• • Then exchange they tokens of their truth;
  • She gives him a golden chain to wear,
  • And a silver chalice would the youth
  • Give her in return of beauty rare.
  • “That is not for me;
  • Yet I beg of thee,
  • One lock only give me of thy hair.”
• • Now the ghostly hour of midnight knell’d,
  • And she seem’d right joyous at the sign;
  • To her pallid lips the cup she held,
  • But she drank of nought but blood-red wine.
  • For to taste the bread
  • There before them spread,
  • Nought he spoke could make the maid incline.
• • To the youth the goblet then she brought,—
  • He too quaff’d with eager joy the bowl.
  • Love to crown the silent feast he sought,
  • Ah! full love-sick was the stripling’s soul.
  • From his prayer she shrinks,
  • Till at length he sinks
  • On the bed and weeps without control.
• • And she comes, and lays her near the boy:
  • “How I grieve to see thee sorrowing so!
  • If thou think’st to clasp my form with joy,
  • Thou must learn this secret sad to know:
  • Yes! the maid, whom thou
  • Call’st thy lov’d one now,
  • Is as cold as ice, though white as snow.”
• • Then he clasps her madly in his arm,
  • While love’s youthful might pervades his frame:
  • “Thou might’st hope, when with me, to grow warm,
  • E’en if from the grave thy spirit came!
  • Breath for breath, and kiss!
  • Overflow of bliss!
  • Dost not thou, like me, feel passion’s flame?”
• • Love still closer rivets now their lips,
  • Tears they mingle with their rapture blest,
  • From his mouth the flame she wildly sips,
  • Each is with the other’s thought possess’d.
  • His hot ardor’s flood
  • Warms her chilly blood,
  • But no heart is beating in her breast.
• • From the door she will not now remove,
  • ’Till she gains full certainty of this;
  • And with anger hears she vows of love,
  • Soft caressing words of mutual bliss.
  • “Hush! the cock’s loud strain!
  • But thou’lt come again,
  • When the night returns!”—then kiss on kiss.
• • In her care to see that nought went wrong,
  • Now the mother happen’d to draw near;
  • At the door long hearkens she, full long,
  • Wond’ring at the sounds that greet her ear.
  • Tones of joy and sadness,
  • And love’s blissful madness,
  • As of bride and bridegroom they appear.
• • Then her wrath the mother cannot hold,
  • But unfastens straight the lock with ease:—
  • “In this house are girls become so bold,
  • As to seek e’en strangers’ lusts to please?”
  • By her lamp’s clear glow
  • Looks she in,—and oh!
  • Sight of horror!—’tis her child she sees.
• • Fain the youth would, in his first alarm,
  • With the veil that o’er her had been spread,
  • With the carpet, shield his love from harm;
  • But she casts them from her, void of dread,
  • And with spirit’s strength,
  • In its spectre length,
  • Lifts her figure slowly from the bed.
• • “Mother! mother!”—Thus her wan lips say:
  • “May not I one night of rapture share?
  • From the warm couch am I chas’d away?
  • Do I waken only to despair?
  • It contents not thee
  • To have driven me
  • An untimely shroud of death to wear?
• • “But from out my coffin’s prison-bounds
  • By a wondrous fate I’m forc’d to rove,
  • While the blessings and the chaunting sounds
  • That your priests delight in, useless prove.
  • Water, salt, are vain
  • Fervent youth to chain,
  • Ah, e’en Earth can never cool down love!
• • “When that infant vow of love was spoken,
  • Venus’ radiant temple smiled on both.
  • Mother! thou that promise since hast broken,
  • Fetter’d by a strange, deceitful oath.
  • Gods, though, hearken ne’er,
  • Should a mother swear
  • To deny her daughter’s plighted troth.
• • “From my grave to wander I am forc’d,
  • Still to seek The Good’s long-sever’d link,
  • Still to love the bridegroom I have lost,
  • And the life-blood of his heart to drink;
  • When his race is run,
  • I must hasten on,
  • And the young must ’neath my vengeance sink.
• • “Beauteous youth! no longer may’st thou live;
  • Here must shrivel up thy form so fair;
  • Did not I to thee a token give,
  • Taking in return this lock of hair?
  • View it to thy sorrow!
  • Gray thou’lt be to-morrow,
  • Only to grow brown again when there.
• • “Mother, to this final prayer give ear!
  • Let a funeral pile be straightway dress’d;
  • Open then my cell so sad and drear,
  • That the flames may give the lovers rest!
  • When ascends the fire
  • From the glowing pyre,
  • To the gods of old we’ll hasten, bless’d.”