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THE WANDERER’S STORM-SONG. - 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 WANDERER’S STORM-SONG.

    • HE whom thou ne’er leavest, Genius,
    • Feels no dread within his heart
    • At the tempest or the rain.
    • He whom thou ne’er leavest, Genius,
    • Will to the rain-clouds,
    • Will to the hail-storm,
    • Sing in reply
    • As the lark sings,
    • Oh, thou on high!
    • Him whom thou ne’er leavest, Genius,
    • Thou wilt raise above the mud-track
    • With thy fiery pinions.
    • He will wander
    • As, with flowery feet,
    • Over Deucalion’s dark flood,
    • Python-slaying, light, glorious,
    • Pythius Apollo.
    • Him whom thou ne’er leavest, Genius,
    • Thou wilt place upon thy fleecy pinion
    • When he sleepeth on the rock,—
    • Thou wilt shelter with thy guardian wing
    • In the forest’s midnight hour.
    • Him whom thou ne’er leavest, Genius,
    • Thou wilt wrap up warmly
    • In the snow-drift;
    • Tow’rd the warmth approach the Muses,
    • Tow’rd the warmth approach the Graces.
    • Ye Muses, hover round me!
    • Ye Graces also!
    • That is water, that is earth,
    • And the son of water and of earth
    • Over which I wander
    • Like the gods.
    • Ye are pure, like the heart of the water;
    • Ye are pure, like the marrow of earth,
    • Hov’ring round me, while I hover
    • Over water, o’er the earth
    • Like the gods.
    • Shall he then return,
    • The small, the dark, the fiery peasant?
    • Shall he then return, awaiting
    • Only thy gifts, O Father Bromius,
    • And brightly gleaming, warmth-spreading fire?
    • Return with joy?
    • And I. whom ye attended,
    • Ye Muses and ye Graces,
    • Whom all awaits that ye,
    • Ye Muses and ye Graces,
    • Of circling bliss in life
    • Have glorified—shall I
    • Return dejected?
    • Father Bromius!
    • Thou’rt the Genius,
    • Genius of ages,
    • Thou’rt what inward glow
    • To Pindar was,
    • What to the world
    • Phœbus Apollo.
    • Woe! woe! Inward warmth,
    • Spirit-warmth,
    • Central point!
    • Glow, and vie with
    • Phœbus Apollo!
    • Coldly soon
    • His regal look
    • Over thee will swiftly glide,—
    • Envy-struck
    • Linger o’er the cedar’s strength,
    • Which to flourish
    • Waits him not.
    • Why doth my lay name thee the last?
    • Thee, from whom it began,
    • Thee, in whom it endeth,
    • Thee, from whom it flows,
    • Jupiter Pluvius!
    • Tow’rd thee streams my song,
    • And a Castalian spring
    • Runs as a fellow-brook,
    • Runs to the idle ones,
    • Mortal, happy ones,
    • Apart from thee,
    • Who cov’rest me around,
    • Jupiter Pluvius!
    • Not by the elm tree
    • Him didst thou visit,
    • With the pair of doves
    • Held in his gentle arm,—
    • With the beauteous garland of roses,—
    • Caressing him, so bless’d in his flowers,
    • Anacreon,
    • Storm-breathing godhead!
    • Not in the poplar grove
    • Near the Sybaris’ strand,
    • Not on the mountain’s
    • Sun-illumined brow
    • Didst thou seize him,
    • The flower-singing,
    • Honey-breathing,
    • Sweetly nodding
    • Theocritus.
    • When the wheels were rattling,
    • Wheel on wheel tow’rd the goal,
    • High arose
    • The sound of the lash
    • Of youths with victory glowing,
    • In the dust rolling,
    • As from the mountain fall
    • Showers of stones in the vale—
    • Then thy soul was brightly glowing, Pindar—
    • Glowing? Poor heart!
    • There, on the hill,—
    • Heavenly might!
    • But enough glow
    • Thither to wend
    • Where is my cot!