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THE MUSE’S MIRROR. - 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 MUSE’S MIRROR.

  • EARLY one day, the Muse, when eagerly bent on adornment,
  • Follow’d a swift-running streamlet, the quietest nook by it seeking.
  • Quickly and noisily flowing, the changeful-surface distorted
  • Ever her moving form; the goddess departed in anger.
  • Yet the stream call’d mockingly after her, saying: “What, truly!
  • Wilt thou not view, then, the truth, in my mirror so clearly depicted?”
  • But she already was far away, on the brink of the ocean,
  • In her figure rejoicing, and duly arranging her garland.