Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow THE DOUBTERS AND THE LOVERS. - 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 DOUBTERS AND THE LOVERS. - 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 DOUBTERS AND THE LOVERS.

    • The Doubters.
    • YE love, and sonnets write! Fate’s strange behest!
    • The heart, its hidden meaning to declare,
    • Must seek for rhymes, uniting pair with pair:
    • Learn, children, that the will is weak, at best.
    • Scarcely with freedom the o’erflowing breast
    • As yet can speak, and well may it beware;
    • Tempestuous passions sweep each chord that’s there,
    • Then once more sink to night and gentle rest.
    • Why vex yourselves and us, the heavy stone
    • Up the steep path but step by step to roll?
    • It falls again, and ye ne’er cease to strive.
    • The Lovers.
    • But we are on the proper road alone!
    • If gladly is to thaw the frozen soul
    • The fire of love must aye be kept alive.