Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow THREATENING SIGNS. - Goethe's Works, vol. 1 (Poems)

Return to Title Page for Goethe’s Works, vol. 1 (Poems)

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Literature

THREATENING SIGNS. - 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.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


THREATENING SIGNS.

    • IF Venus in the evening sky
    • Is seen in radiant majesty,
    • If rod-like comets, red as blood,
    • Are ’mongst the constellations view’d,
    • Out springs the Ignoramus, yelling:
    • “The star’s exactly o’er my dwelling!
    • What woful prospect, ah, for me!”—
    • Then calls his neighbor mournfully:
    • “Behold that awful sign of evil,
    • Portending woe to me, poor devil!
    • My mother’s asthma ne’er will leave her,
    • My child is sick with wind and fever;
    • I dread the illness of my wife,
    • A week has pass’d devoid of strife,—
    • And other things have reach’d my ear;
    • The Judgment-day has come, I fear!”
    • His neighbor answers: “Friend, you’re right!
    • Matters look very bad to-night.
    • Let’s go a street or two, though, hence,
    • And gaze upon the stars from thence.”—
    • No change appears in either case.
    • Let each remain then in his place,
    • And wisely do the best he can,
    • Patient as any other man.