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 SAGES AND THE PEOPLE.

• • Epimenides.
  • NOW, brethren! hasten to the grove!
  • The eager people push and shove.
  • From North, South, East and West their yearning
  • For wisdom brings them, hither turning
  • Their hurrying steps. ’Tis light they love,
  • But not expensive is their learning;
  • I beg you now your minds prepare
  • To read the text as they demand it!
• • The People.
  • Ye men of riddles, we declare
  • That you must teach us, full and fair,
  • Not darkly—so we understand it:
  • Say! is the world from everlasting?
• • Anaxagoras.
  • I have no doubt of it, for casting
  • A backward glance, if e’er you came
  • To time without it, ’twould seem a shame!
• • The People.
  • But will it end in smoke and flame?
• • Anaximenes.
  • Most likely! Yet it’s all the same!
  • If God exists in deed and name,
  • There’ll still be pleasant worlds in plenty.
• • The People.
  • What dost thou mean by Infinite?
• • Parmenides.
  • Why should’st thou vex thyself with it?
  • Search thy own soul! If there is lacking
  • Infinity in mind and wit,
  • Take little thought for other’s backing!
• • The People.
  • But where and how is Thought evolv’d?
• • Diogenes.
  • Thou putt’st a riddle never solv’d;
  • The thinker thinks from hat to shoe,
  • And in a flash he gets the clue,
  • Unto the Where, the How, the Best.
• • The People.
  • And does my body house a soul?
• • Mimnermos.
  • ’Twere well to ask thy brothers,
  • For, dost thou see, this life long guest,
  • This civil creature with its rôle
  • Of pleasing self, delighting others,
  • Is call’d a soul, and I sustain it.
• • The People.
  • When Night is on, does sleep enchain it?
• • Periander.
  • It cannot slip its lasting bond;
  • Thy body feels the power of sleep,
  • Which comes upon it from beyond;
  • The soul, too, feels the influence deep.
• • The People.
  • What dost thou mean by Spirit? speak!
• • Kleoboulos.
  • The thing call’d Spirit, I confess,
  • Asks questions—never answers.
• • The People.
  • Now, tell me! what is happiness?
• • Krates.
  • ’Tis what the fearless urchin shows,
  • Who, with his comrades—jolly dancers—
  • With jingling pennies, gayly goes;
  • Full well the pudding-place he knows—
  • I mean, he knows the baker!
• • The People.
  • What proof of immortality?
• • Aristippos.
  • The best life in reality
  • He leads who lives serene and meek—
  • Builds firm and strong in perfect vows—
  • And trusts all to his Maker!
• • The People.
  • Is wisdom or is folly best?
• • Demokritos.
  • That scarcely needs reflection,
  • The wise in his own conceit,
  • Is not begrudged when wise men meet.
• • The People.
  • Does chance rule all and mere deception?
• • Epikouros.
  • I take the old direction,
  • Get all the good I can from chance,
  • Enjoy deception’s fleeting glance;
  • Their use and sport thou would’st prefer so.
• • The People.
  • Is freedom of the will a lie?
• • Zeno.
  • It seems as though it were so,
  • So keep a good stiff upper lip,
  • And if thou mak’st a final slip,
  • Thou would’st preserve thy gravity.
• • The People.
  • Was I, a child, born in depravity?
• • Pelagius.
  • Thy question I had much preferred
  • Not at this junction to have heard;
  • ’Tis true thou hast inherited
  • A grievous load unmerited.
  • To ask the question was absurd!
• • The People.
  • Are we compelled to seek our best?
• • Plato.
  • If everybody were not blest,
  • In ever taking good suggestions,
  • Thou would’st not ask such questions.
  • Make on thyself the first attempt,
  • And, if thou canst know thyself,
  • Let other people be exempt.
• • The People.
  • But everywhere rules greed for pelf!
• • Epiktetos.
  • Well! let the people have their gain,
  • The farthings of the balance
  • Thou must not grudge them; that is plain.
• • The People.
  • Now tell us how to use our talents,
  • Ere we forever drift apart.
• • The Sages.
  • The law of wisdom take to heart!
  • Avoid all questioners, my gallants!

Rhymed Distichs.