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.

THE WANDERER.

• • Wanderer.
  • YOUNG woman, may God bless thee,
  • Thee and the sucking infant
  • Upon thy breast!
  • Let me, ’gainst this rocky wall,
  • ’Neath the elm tree’s shadow,
  • Lay aside my burden,
  • Near thee take my rest.
• • Woman.
  • What vocation leads thee,
  • While the day is burning,
  • Up this dusty path?
  • Bring’st thou goods from out the town
  • Round the country?
  • Smil’st thou, stranger,
  • At my question?
• • Wanderer.
  • From the town no goods I bring.
  • Cool is now the evening;
  • Show to me the fountain
  • Whence thou drinkest,
  • Woman young and kind!
• • Woman.
  • Up the rocky pathway mount;
  • Go thou first! Across the thicket
  • Leads the pathway tow’rd the cottage
  • That I live in,
  • To the fountain
  • Whence I drink.
• • Wanderer.
  • Signs of man’s arranging hand
  • See I ’mid the trees!
  • Not by thee these stones were join’d,
  • Nature, who so freely scatterest!
• • Woman.
  • Up, still up!
• • Wanderer.
  • Lo, a mossy architrave is here!
  • I discern thee, fashioning spirit!
  • On the stone thou hast impress’d thy seal.
• • Woman.
  • Onward, stranger!
• • Wanderer.
  • Over an inscription am I treading!
  • ’Tis effaced!
  • Ye are seen no longer,
  • Words so deeply graven,
  • Who your master’s true devotion
  • Should have shown to thousand grandsons!
• • Woman.
  • At these stones, why
  • Start’st thou, stranger?
  • Many stones are lying yonder
  • Round my cottage.
• • Wanderer.
  • Yonder?
• • Woman.
  • Through the thicket,
  • Turning to the left,
  • Here!
• • Wanderer.
  • Ye Muses and ye Graces!
• • Woman.
  • This, then, is my cottage.
• • Wanderer.
  • ’Tis a ruin’d temple!
• • Woman.
  • Just below it, see,
  • Springs the fountain
  • Whence I drink.
• • Wanderer.
  • Thou dost hover
  • O’er thy grave, all glowing,
  • Genius! while upon thee
  • Hath thy masterpiece
  • Fallen crumbling,
  • Thou Immortal One!
• • Woman.
  • Stay, a cup I’ll fetch thee
  • Whence to drink.
• • Wanderer.
  • Ivy circles thy slender
  • Form so graceful and godlike.
  • How ye rise on high
  • From the ruins,
  • Column-pair!
  • And thou, their lonely sister yonder,—
  • How thou,
  • Dusky moss upon thy sacred head,—
  • Lookest down in mournful majesty
  • On thy brethren’s figures
  • Lying scatter’d
  • At thy feet!
  • In the shadow of the bramble
  • Earth and rubbish veil them,
  • Lofty grass is waving o’er them!
  • Is it thus thou, Nature, prizest
  • Thy great masterpiece’s masterpiece?
  • Carelessly destroyest thou
  • Thine own sanctuary,
  • Sowing thistles there?
• • Woman.
  • How the infant sleeps!
  • Wilt thou rest thee in the cottage,
  • Stranger? Would’st thou rather
  • In the open air still linger?
  • Now ’tis cool! take thou the child
  • While I go and draw some water.
  • Sleep on, darling! sleep!
• • Wanderer.
  • Sweet is thy repose!
  • How, with heaven-born health imbued,
  • Peacefully he slumbers!
  • O thou, born among the ruins
  • Spread by great antiquity,
  • On thee rest her spirit!
  • He whom it encircles
  • Will, in godlike consciousness,
  • Ev’ry day enjoy.
  • Full of germ, unfold,
  • As the smiling springtime’s
  • Fairest charm,
  • Outshining all thy fellows!
  • And when the blossom’s husk is faded,
  • May the full fruit shoot forth
  • From out thy breast,
  • And ripen in the sunshine!
• • Woman.
  • God bless him!—Is he sleeping still?
  • To the fresh draught I naught can add,
  • Saving a crust of bread for thee to eat.
• • Wanderer.
  • I thank thee well.
  • How fair the verdure all around!
  • How green!
• • Woman.
  • My husband soon
  • Will home return
  • From labor. Tarry, tarry, man,
  • And with us eat our evening meal.
• • Wanderer.
  • Is’t here ye dwell?
• • Woman.
  • Yonder, within those walls we live.
  • My father ’twas who built the cottage
  • Of tiles and stones from out the ruins.
  • ’Tis here we dwell.
  • He gave me to a husbandman,
  • And in our arms expir’d.—
  • Hast thou been sleeping, dearest heart?
  • How lively, and how full of play!
  • Sweet rogue!
• • Wanderer.
  • Nature, thou ever budding one,
  • Thou formest each for life’s enjoyments,
  • And, like a mother, all thy children dear,
  • Blessest with that sweet heritage,—a home!
  • The swallow builds the cornice round,
  • Unconscious of the beauties
  • She plasters up.
  • The caterpillar spins around the bough,
  • To make her brood a winter house;
  • And thou dost patch, between antiquity’s
  • Most glorious relics,
  • For thy mean use,
  • O man, an humble cot,—
  • Enjoyest e’en ’mid tombs!—
  • Farewell, thou happy woman!
• • Woman.
  • Thou wilt not stay, then?
• • Wanderer.
  • May God preserve thee,
  • And bless thy boy!
• • Woman.
  • A happy journey!
• • Wanderer.
  • Whither conducts the path
  • Across yon hill?
• • Woman.
  • To Cuma.
• • Wanderer.
  • How far from hence?
• • Woman.
  • ’Tis full three miles.
• • Wanderer.
  • Farewell!
  • O Nature, guide me on my way!
  • The wandering stranger guide,
  • Who o’er the tombs
  • Of holy bygone times
  • Is passing,
  • To a kind sheltering place,
  • From North winds safe,
  • And where a poplar grove
  • Shuts out the noontide ray!
  • And when I come
  • Home to my cot
  • At evening,
  • Illumin’d by the setting sun,
  • Let me embrace a wife like this,
  • Her infant in her arms!