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BY THE RIVER. - 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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BY THE RIVER.

    • WHEN by the broad stream thou dost dwell,
    • Oft shallow is its sluggish flood;
    • Then, when thy fields thou tendest well,
    • It o’er them spreads its slime and mud.
    • The ships descend ere daylight wanes,
    • The prudent fisher upward goes;
    • Round reef and rock ice casts its chains,
    • And boys at will the pathway close.
    • To this attend, then, carefully,
    • And what thou would’st, that execute!
    • Ne’er linger, ne’er o’erhasty be,
    • For time moves on with measur’d foot.