Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow THE MAIDEN SPEAKS. - Goethe's Works, vol. 1 (Poems)

Return to Title Page for Goethe’s Works, vol. 1 (Poems)

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Literature

THE MAIDEN SPEAKS. - 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.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


THE MAIDEN SPEAKS.

    • HOW grave thou lookest, lov’d one! wherefore so?
    • Thy marble image seems a type of thee;
    • Like it, no sign of life thou giv’st to me;
    • Compar’d with thee, the stone appears to glow.
    • Behind his shield in ambush lurks the foe,
    • The friend’s brow all-unruffled we should see.
    • I seek thee, but thou seek’st away to flee;
    • Fix’d as this sculptur’d figure, learn to grow!
    • Tell me, to which should I the preference pay?
    • Must I from both with coldness meet alone?
    • The one is lifeless, thou with life art bless’d.
    • In short, no longer to throw words away,
    • I’ll fondly kiss and kiss and kiss this stone,
    • Till thou dost tear me hence with envious breast.