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.

Epigrams

Venice, 1790.

• • I.

  • SARCOPHAGUS and urn erst were with life adorn’d by the heathen:
  • Fauns are dancing around, while with the Bacchanal troop
  • Chequer’d circles they trace; and the goat-footed, puffy-cheek’d player
  • Wildly produceth hoarse tones out of the clamorous horn.
  • Cymbals and drums resound; we see and we hear, too, the marble.
  • Fluttering bird! Oh, how sweet tastes the ripe fruit to thy bill!
  • Noise there is none to disturb thee, still less to scare away Amor,
  • Who, in the midst of the throng, learns to delight in his torch.
  • Thus doth fulness overcome death; and the ashes there cover’d
  • Seem, in that silent domain, still to be gladden’d with life.
  • Thus may the minstrel’s sarcophagus be hereafter surrounded
  • With such a scroll, which himself richly with life has adorn’d.

• • II.

  • CLASP’D in my arms forever eagerly hold I my mistress,
  • Ever my panting heart throbs wildly against her dear breast,
  • And on her knees forever is leaning my head, while I’m gazing
  • Now on her sweet-smiling mouth, now on her bright sparkling eyes.
  • “O thou effeminate!” spake one, “and thus, then, thy days thou art spending?”
  • Ah, they in sorrow are spent. List while I tell thee my tale:
  • Yes! I have left my only joy in life far behind me,
  • Twenty long days hath my car borne me away from her sight.
  • Vetturini defy me, while crafty chamberlains flatter,
  • And the sly Valet de place thinks but of lies and deceit.
  • If I attempt to escape, the Postmaster fastens upon me,
  • Postboys the upper hand get, custom-house duties enrage.
  • “Truly, I can’t understand thee! thou talkest enigmas! thou seemest
  • Wrapp’d in a blissful repose, glad as Rinaldo of yore:”—
  • Ah, I myself understand full well; ’tis my body that travels,
  • And ’tis my spirit that rests still in my mistress’s arms.

• • III.

  • I WOULD liken this gondola unto the soft-rocking cradle,
  • And the chest on its deck seems a vast coffin to be.
  • Yes! ’tween the cradle and coffin, we totter and waver forever
  • On the mighty canal, careless our lifetime is spent.

• • IV.

  • WHY are the people thus busily moving? For food they are seeking,
  • Children they fain would beget, feeding them well as they can.
  • Traveller, mark this well, and when thou art home, do thou likewise!
  • More can no mortal effect, work with what ardor he will.

• • V.

  • I WOULD compare to the land this anvil, its lord to the hammer,
  • And to the people the plate, which in the middle is bent.
  • Sad is the poor tin-plate’s lot, when the blows are but given at random:
  • Ne’er will the kettle be made, while they uncertainly fall.

• • VI.

  • WHAT is the life of a man? Yet thousands are ever accustom’d
  • Freely to talk about man,—what he has done, too, and how.
  • Even less is a poem; yet thousands read and enjoy it,
  • Thousands abuse it.—My friend, live and continue to rhyme!

• • VII.

  • MERRY’S the trade of a poet; but somewhat a dear one, I fear me;
  • For, as my book grows apace, all of my sequins I lose.

• • VIII.

  • IF thou’rt in earnest, no longer delay, but render me happy;
  • Art thou in jest? Ah, sweet love! time for all jesting is past.

• • IX.

  • ART thou, then, vex’d at my silence? What shall I speak of? Thou markest
  • Neither my sorrowful sigh, nor my soft eloquent look.
  • Only one goddess is able the seal of my lips to unloosen,—
  • When by Aurora I’m found, slumbering calm on thy breast.
  • Ah, then my hymn in the ears of the earliest gods shall be chaunted,
  • As the Memnonian form breath’d forth sweet secrets in song.

• • X.

  • IN the twilight of morning to climb to the top of the mountain,—
  • Thee to salute, kindly star, earliest herald of day,—
  • And to await, with impatience, the gaze of the ruler of heaven,—
  • Youthful delight, oh, how oft lurest thou me out in the night!
  • O ye heralds of day, ye heavenly eyes of my mistress,
  • Now ye appear, and the sun evermore riseth too soon.

• • XI.

  • THOU art amaz’d, and dost point to the ocean. It seems to be burning,
  • Flame-crested billows in play dart round our night-moving bark.
  • Me it astonisheth not,—of the ocean was born Aphrodite,—
  • Did not a flame, too, proceed from her for us, in her son?

• • XII.

  • GLEAMING the ocean appear’d, the beauteous billows were smiling,
  • While a fresh, favoring wind, filling the sails, drove us on.
  • Free was my bosom from yearning; yet soon my languishing glances
  • Turn’d themselves backward in haste, seeking the snow-cover’d hills.
  • Treasures unnumber’d are southwards lying. Yet one to the northwards
  • Draws me resistlessly back, like the strong magnet in force.

• • XIII.

  • SPACIOUS and fair is the world; yet oh, how I thank the kind heavens
  • That I a garden possess, small though it be, yet mine own.
  • One which enticeth me homewards; why should a gardener wander?
  • Honor and pleasure he finds when to his garden he looks.

• • XIV.

  • AH, my maiden is going! she mounts the vessel! My monarch,
  • Æolus! potentate dread! keep every storm far away!
  • “O thou fool!” cried the god: “ne’er fear the blustering tempest;
  • When Love flutters his wings, then may’st thou dread the soft breeze.”

• • XV.

  • WILT thou enjoy the pleasures of Love with purest of feelings?
  • Keep conceit from thy heart—banish solemnity!
  • Love is scared by the one, the other hopes vainly to chain him:
  • Ill-affected to both smiles the mischievous god.