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SPIRIT SONG OVER THE WATERS. - 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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SPIRIT SONG OVER THE WATERS.

    • THE soul of man
    • Resembleth water:
    • From heaven it cometh,
    • To heaven it soareth,
    • And then again
    • To earth descendeth,
    • Changing ever.
    • Down from the lofty
    • Rocky wall
    • Streams the bright flood,
    • Then spreadeth gently
    • In cloudy billows
    • O’er the smooth rock,
    • And welcomed kindly,
    • Veiling, on roams it,
    • Soft murmuring,
    • Toward the abyss.
    • Cliffs projecting
    • Oppose its progress,—
    • Angrily foams it
    • Down to the bottom,
    • Step by step.
    • Now, in flat channel,
    • Through the meadowland steals it,
    • And in the polish’d lake
    • Each constellation
    • Joyously peepeth.
    • Wind is the loving
    • Wooer of waters;
    • Wind blends together
    • Billows all-foaming.
    • Spirit of man,
    • Thou art like unto water!
    • Fortune of man,
    • Thou art like unto wind!