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THE FRIENDLY MEETING. - 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 FRIENDLY MEETING.

    • ENROB’D with mantle to my chin conceal’d,
    • I trod the rocky path, so steep and gray,
    • Then to the wintry plain I bent my way
    • Uneasily, to flight my bosom steel’d.
    • But sudden was the newborn day reveal’d:
    • A maiden came, in heavenly bright array,
    • Like the fair creatures of the poet’s lay
    • In realms of song. My yearning heart was heal’d.
    • Yet turn’d I thence, till she had onward pass’d,
    • While closer still the folds to draw I tried,
    • As though with heat self-kindled to grow warm;
    • But follow’d her. She stood. The die was cast!
    • No more within my mantle could I hide;
    • I threw it off,—she lay within mine arm.