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THE MUSAGETES. - 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 MUSAGETES.

    • IN the deepest nights of winter
    • To the Muses kind oft cried I:
    • “Not a ray of morn is gleaming,
    • Not a sign of daylight breaking;
    • Bring then, at the fitting moment,
    • Bring the lamp’s soft glimm’ring lustre
    • ’Stead of Phœbus and Aurora,
    • To enliven my still labors!”
    • Yet they left me in my slumbers,
    • Dull and unrefreshing, lying,
    • And to each late-waken’d morning
    • Follow’d days devoid of profit.
    • When at length return’d the springtime
    • To the nightingales thus spake I:
    • “Darling nightingales, oh, beat ye
    • Early, early at my window,—
    • Wake me from the heavy slumber
    • That chains down the youth so strongly!”
    • Yet the love-o’erflowing songsters
    • Their sweet melodies protracted
    • Through the night before my window,
    • Kept awake my loving spirit,
    • Rousing new and tender yearnings
    • In my newly-waken’d bosom.
    • And the night thus fleeted o’er me,
    • And Aurora found me sleeping,—
    • Ay, the sun could scarce arouse me.
    • Now at length is come the summer,
    • And the early fly so busy
    • Draws me from my pleasing slumbers
    • At the first-born morning-glimmer.
    • Mercilessly then returns she,
    • Though the half-aroused one often
    • Scares her from him with impatience,
    • And she lures her shameless sisters,
    • So that from my weary eyelids
    • Kindly sleep ere long is driven.
    • From my couch then boldly spring I,
    • And I seek the darling Muses,
    • In the beechen-grove I find them
    • Full of pleasure to receive me;
    • And to the tormenting insects
    • Owe I many a golden hour.
    • Thus be ye, unwelcome beings,
    • Highly valued by the poet
    • As the flies my numbers tell of.