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A PARABLE. - 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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A PARABLE.

  • I PICK’D a rustic nosegay lately,
  • And bore it homewards, musing greatly;
  • When, heated by my hand, I found
  • The heads all drooping tow’rd the ground
  • I plac’d them in a well-cool’d glass,
  • And what a wonder came to pass!
  • The heads soon rais’d themselves once more,
  • The stalks were blooming as before,
  • And all were in as good a case
  • As when they left their native place.
  • * * * * *
  • So felt I, when I wond’ring heard
  • My song to foreign tongues transferr’d.