The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• The Life of Goethe By Hjalmar H. Boyesen, Ph.d.
• Poems
• Dedication.
• Songs
• Sound, Sweet Song.
• To the Kind Reader.
• The New Amadis
• When the Fox Dies, His Skin Counts.
• The Heathrose.
• Blindman’s Buff.
• Christel.
• The Coy One.
• The Convert.
• Preservation.
• The Muses’ Son.
• Found.
• Like and Like.
• Reciprocal Invitation to the Dance.
• Self-deceit.
• Declaration of War.
• Lover In All Shapes.
• The Goldsmith’s Apprentice.
• Joy and Sorrow.
• March.
• Answers In a Game of Questions.
• Different Emotions On the Same Spot.
• Who’ll Buy Gods of Love?
• The Misanthrope.
• True Enjoyment.
• Happiness and Vision.
• The Farewell.
• The Beautiful Night.
• Apparent Death.
• Proximity.
• Living Remembrance.
• The Bliss of Absence.
• To Luna.
• The Wedding Night.
• Mischievous Joy.
• Farewell.
• The Exchange.
• November Song.
• To the Chosen One.
• First Loss.
• After-sensations.
• Proximity of the Beloved One.
• Presence.
• To the Distant One.
• By the River.
• Night Song.
• Calm At Sea.
• The Prosperous Voyage.
• Courage.
• Admonition.
• Welcome and Farewell.
• New Love, New Life.
• To Belinda.
• May Song.
• With a Painted Ribbon.
• With a Golden Necklace.
• To Charlotte.
• On the Lake.
• From the Mountain.
• Flower Salute.
• May Song.
• Premature Spring.
• Autumn Feelings
• Restless Love.
• The Shepherd’s Lament.
• Comfort In Tears.
• Longing.
• To Mignon.
• The Mountain Castle
• The Spirit’s Salute.
• To a Golden Heart That He Wore Round His Neck.
• The Bliss of Sorrow.
• The Wanderer’s Night-song.
• The Same.
• To the Moon.
• The Hunter’s Even-song.
• My Only Property.
• To Lina.
• Familiar Songs
• On the New Year.
• Anniversary Song.
• The Spring Oracle.
• The Happy Couple.
• Song of Fellowship.
• Constancy In Change.
• Table Song.
• Wont and Done.
• General Confession.
• Coptic Song.
• Another.
• Vanitas! Vanitatum Vanitas!
• Swiss Song.
• Fortune of War.
• Open Table.
• The Reckoning.
• Ergo Bibamus!
• Epiphanias.
• Finnish Song.
• Gypsy Song.
• From Wilhelm Meister.
• Mignon.
• The Same.
• The Harper.
• Philine.
• Ballads
• Mignon.
• The Harper.
• Ballad of the Banished and Returning Count.
• The Violet.
• The Faithless Boy.
• The Erl-king.
• Johanna Sebus
• The Fisherman.
• The King of Thule.
• The Beauteous Flower. Song of the Imprisoned Count.
• Sir Curt’s Wedding-journey.
• Wedding Song.
• The Treasure-digger.
• The Rat-catcher.
• The Spinner.
• Before a Court of Justice.
• The Page and the Miller’s Daughter.
• The Youth and the Millstream.
• The Maid of the Mill’s Treachery.
• The Maid of the Mill’s Repentance.
• The Traveller and the Farm-maiden.
• Effects At a Distance.
• The Walking Bell.
• Faithful Eckart.
• The Pupil In Magic.
• The Dance of Death.
• The Bride of Corinth.
• The God and the Bayadere. an Indian Legend.
• The Pariah. the Pariah’s Prayer.
• Legend.
• The Pariah’s Thanks.
• The First Walpurgis-night.
• Death-lament of the Noble Wife of Asan Aga.
• Antiques
• Leopold, Duke of Brunswick. 1785.
• To the Husbandman.
• Anacreon’s Grave.
• The Brethren.
• Measure of Time.
• Warning.
• SakÓntala.
• Solitude.
• The Chosen Cliff.
• The Consecrated Spot.
• The Instructors.
• The Unequal Marriage.
• Excuse.
• The Muse’s Mirror.
• PhŒbus and Hermes.
• The New Amor.
• The Garlands.
• The Swiss Alps.
• Elegies
• Roman Elegies.
• Alexis and Dora.
• Epigrams
• Venice, 1790.
• The Four Seasons.
• Spring.
• Summer.
• Autumn.
• Winter.
• Sonnets.
• The Friendly Meeting.
• In a Word.
• The Maiden Speaks.
• Growth.
• Food In Travel.
• Departure.
• The Loving One Writes.
• The Loving One Once More.
• She Cannot End.
• Nemesis.
• The Christmas-box.
• The Warning.
• The Doubters and the Lovers.
• The Epochs.
• Charade.
• Miscellaneous Poems.
• The German Parnassus.
• Mahomet’s Song.
• Spirit Song Over the Waters.
• My Goddess.
• Winter Journey Over the Hartz Mountains.
• To Father Kronos.
• The Wanderer’s Storm-song.
• The Sea-voyage.
• Prometheus.
• The Eagle and Dove.
• Ganymede.
• The Boundaries of Humanity.
• The Godlike.
• Royal Prayer.
• Human Feelings.
• Lily’s Menagerie.
• Love’s Distresses.
• To His Coy One.
• Petition.
• The Musagetes.
• Morning Lament.
• The Visit.
• The Magic Net.
• The Goblet.
• Night Thoughts.
• To Lida.
• Forever.
• From an Album of 1604.
• To the Rising Full Moon.
• Betrothed.
• At Midnight Hour.
• Lines On Seeing Schiller’s Skull.
• Trilogy of Passion.
• To Werther.
• Elegy.
• Atonement.
• April.
• May.
• June.
• Ever and Everywhere.
• Next Year’s Spring.
• Such, Such Is He Who Pleaseth Me.
• St. Nepomuk’s Eve. Carlsbad, May 15, 1820.
• The Freebooter.
• Reciprocal.
• Song of the Emigrants.
• Explanation of an Ancient Woodcut Representing Hans Sachs’ Poetical Mission.
• Thoughts On Jesus Christ’s Descent Into Hell.
• Art
• The Drops of Nectar.
• The Wanderer.
• Love As a Landscape-painter.
• Artist’s Evening Song.
• Parables
• Explanation of an Antique Gem.
• Cat-pie.
• Legend.
• The Critic.
• Authors.
• The Dilettante and the Critic.
• Celebrity.
• The Yelpers.
• The Wrangler.
• Joy.
• Playing At Priests.
• Songs.
• Poetry.
• A Parable.
• Cupid and Psyche.
• The Death of the Fly.
• By the River.
• The Fox and Crane.
• The Fox and Huntsman.
• The Stork’s Vocation.
• The Frogs.
• The Wedding.
• Burial.
• Threatening Signs.
• The Buyers.
• The Mountain Village.
• Symbols.
• Three Palinodias.
• Valediction.
• The Country Schoolmaster.
• The Legend of the Horseshoe.
• Epigrams.
• To Originals.
• The Soldier’s Consolation.
• Genial Impulse.
• Neither This Nor That.
• The Way to Behave.
• The Best.
• As Broad As It’s Long.
• Calm At Sea.
• The Rule of Life.
• The Same, Expanded.
• The Fair At Huehenefeld. July 25th, 1814.
• The Little Girl’s Wish.
• Epitaph.
• Admonition.
• My Only Property.
• Old Age.
• Courage.
• Rule For Monarchs.
• Memories.
• Paulo Post Futuri.
• The Fool’s Epilogue.
• On the Divan.
• God and World.
• Prooemion.
• The Metamorphosis of Plants.
• The Sages and the People.
• Rhymed Distichs.
• God, Soul and World.
• Distichs.
• West-eastern Divan.
• Moganni Nameh.
• Hafis Nameh.
• Uschk Nameh.
• Teskir Nameh.
• Rendsch Nameh.
• Hikmet Nameh.
• Timur Nameh.
• Suleika Nameh.
• Safi Nameh.
• Mathal Nameh.
• Parsi Nameh.
• Chuld Nameh.
• Hermann and Dorothea
• Fate and Sympathy.
• Hermann.
• The Burghers.
• Mother and Son.
• The Cosmopolite.
• The Age.
• Dorothea.
• Hermann and Dorothea.
• Conclusion.

THOUGHTS ON JESUS CHRIST’S DESCENT INTO HELL.

• • WHAT wondrous noise is heard around!
  • Through heaven exulting voices sound,
  • A mighty army marches on.
  • By thousand millions follow’d, lo,
  • To yon dark place makes haste to go
  • God’s Son, descending from His throne!
  • He goes—the tempests round Him break,
  • As Judge and Hero cometh He;
  • He goes—the constellations quake,
  • The sun, the world quake fearfully.
• • I see Him in His victor-car,
  • On fiery axles borne afar,
  • Who on the cross for us expir’d.
  • The triumph to yon realms He shows,—
  • Remote from earth, where star ne’er glows,—
  • The triumph He for us acquir’d.
  • He cometh, Hell to extirpate,
  • Whom He, by dying, well nigh kill’d;
  • He shall pronounce her fearful fate:
  • Hark! now the curse is straight fulfill’d.
• • Hell sees the victor come at last,
  • She feels that now her reign is past,
  • She quakes and fears to meet His sight;
  • She knows His thunders’ terrors dread,
  • In vain she seeks to hide her head,
  • Attempts to fly, but vain is flight;
  • Vainly she hastes to ’scape pursuit
  • And to avoid her Judge’s eye;
  • The Lord’s fierce wrath restrains her foot
  • Like brazen chains,—she cannot fly.
• • Here lies the Dragon, trampled down,
  • He lies, and feels God’s angry frown,
  • He feels, and grinneth hideously;
  • He feels Hell’s speechless agonies;
  • A thousand times he howls and sighs:
  • “O burning flames! quick, swallow me!”
  • There lies he in the fiery waves,
  • By torments rack’d and pangs infernal,
  • Instant annihilation craves,
  • And hears those pangs will be eternal.
• • Those mighty squadrons, too, are here,
  • The partners of his curs’d career,
  • Yet far less bad than he were they.
  • Here lies the countless throng combin’d,
  • In black and fearful crowds entwin’d,
  • While round him fiery tempests play;
  • He sees how they the Judge avoid,
  • He sees the storm upon them feed,
  • Yet is not at the sight o’erjoy’d,
  • Because his pangs e’en theirs exceed.
• • The Son of Man in triumph passes
  • Down to Hell’s wild and black morasses,
  • And there unfolds His majesty.
  • Hell cannot bear the bright array,
  • For, since her first created day,
  • Darkness alone e’er govern’d she.
  • She lay remote from ev’ry light,
  • With torments fill’d in Chaos here;
  • God turn’d forever from her sight
  • His radiant features’ glory clear.
• • Within the realms she calls her own,
  • She sees the splendor of the Son,
  • His dreaded glories shining forth;
  • She sees Him clad in rolling thunder,
  • She sees the rocks all quake with wonder
  • When God before her stands in wrath.
  • She sees He comes her Judge to be,
  • She feels the awful pangs inside her,
  • Herself to slay endeavors she,
  • But e’en this comfort is denied her.
• • Now looks she back, with pains untold,
  • Upon those happy times of old,
  • When all these glories gave her joy;
  • When yet her heart revered the truth,
  • When her glad soul, in endless youth
  • And rapture dwelt, without alloy.
  • She calls to mind with madden’d thought
  • How over man her wiles prevail’d;
  • To take revenge on God she sought,
  • And feels the vengeance it entail’d.
• • God was made man, and came to earth.
  • Then Satan cried with fearful mirth:
  • “E’en He my victim now shall be!”
  • He sought to slay the Lord Most High,
  • The world’s Creator now must die;
  • But, Satan, endless woe to thee!
  • Thou thought’st to overcome Him then,
  • Rejoicing in His suffering;
  • But He in triumph comes again
  • To bind thee: Death! where is thy sting?
• • Speak, Hell! where is thy victory?
  • Thy power destroy’d and scatter’d see!
  • Know’st thou not now the Highest’s might?
  • See, Satan, see thy rule o’erthrown!
  • By thousand-varying pangs weigh’d down,
  • Thou dwell’st in dark and endless night.
  • As though by lightning struck thou liest,
  • No gleam of rapture far or wide;
  • In vain! no hope thou there descriest,—
  • For me alone Messiah died!
• • A howling rises through the air,
  • A trembling fills each dark vault there,
  • When Christ to Hell is seen to come.
  • She snarls with rage, but needs must cower
  • Before our mighty Hero’s power;
  • He signs—and Hell is straightway dumb.
  • Before His voice the thunders break,
  • On high His victor-banner blows;
  • E’en angels at His fury quake,
  • When Christ to the dread judgment goes.
• • Now speaks He, and His voice is thunder,
  • He speaks, the rocks are rent in sunder,
  • His breath is like devouring flames.
  • Thus speaks He: “Tremble, ye accurs’d!
  • He who from Eden hurl’d you erst,
  • Your kingdom’s overthrow proclaims.
  • Look up! My children once were ye,
  • Your arms against Me then ye turn’d,
  • Ye fell, that ye might sinners be,
  • Ye’ve now the wages that ye earn’d.
• • “My greatest foemen from that day,
  • Ye led My dearest friends astray,—
  • As ye had fallen, man must fall.
  • To kill him evermore ye sought,
  • ‘They all shall die the death,’ ye thought;
  • But howl! for Me I’ve won them all.
  • For them alone did I descend,
  • For them pray’d, suffer’d, perish’d I.
  • Ye ne’er shall gain your wicked end;
  • Who trusts in Me shall never die.
• • “In endless chains here lie ye now,
  • Nothing can save you from the slough,
  • Not boldness, not regret for crime.
  • Lie, then, and writhe in brimstone fire!
  • ’Twas ye yourselves drew down Mine ire,
  • Lie and lament throughout all time!
  • And also ye, whom I selected,
  • E’en ye forever I disown,
  • For ye My saving grace rejected;
  • Ye murmur? blame yourselves alone!
• • “Ye might have liv’d with Me in bliss,
  • For I of yore had promis’d this;
  • Ye sinn’d, and all My precepts slighted.
  • Wrapp’d in the sleep of sin ye dwelt,
  • Now is My fearful judgment felt,
  • By a just doom your guilt requited.”
  • Thus spake He, and a fearful storm
  • From Him proceeds, the lightnings glow,
  • The thunders seize each wicked form,
  • And hurl them in the gulf below.
• • The God-man closeth Hell’s sad doors;
  • In all His majesty He soars
  • From those dark regions back to light:
  • He sitteth at the Father’s side.
  • O friends, what joy doth this betide!
  • For us, for us He still will fight!
  • The angels’ sacred choir around
  • Rejoice before the mighty Lord,
  • So that all creatures hear the sound:
  • “Zebaoth’s God be aye ador’d!”

Art