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.

Moganni Nameh.

BOOK OF THE MINSTREL.

HEGIRA.

• • NORTH and West and South are crumbling,
  • Kingdoms tremble, thrones are tumbling;
  • To the East fly from annoyance,
  • Seeking patriarchal joyance,
  • Where ’mid love and wine and singing,
  • Chiser’s Fount new life is bringing.
• • There in calm and holy places
  • Will I study primal races;
  • Searching back to dim beginnings
  • For the source of wisdom’s winnings;
  • Wealth of language, lore of heaven,
  • Undisturb’d by discord’s leaven.
• • Children then show’d veneration,
  • Scorn’d was outside obligation!
  • Firmly grown in bone and marrow,
  • Faith was strong though thought was narrow;
  • And the word kept power unbroken,
  • Just because the word was spoken.
• • I will mix with shepherd races—
  • Find enjoyment in oases,
  • With long caravans will wander,
  • Wealth on shawls and spices squander.
  • Every path though rough or pretty
  • Will explore from waste to city.
• • Mountain footways rough and weary,
  • Hafis, do thy songs make cheery;
  • When the guide on muleback clinging
  • Wakes the echoes with his singing;
  • And the stars above are brighten’d,
  • And the lurking brigand frighten’d.
• • When I bathe or when I’m drinking,
  • Hafis great, of thee I’m thinking;
  • When her veil my sweetheart raises,
  • And my cheek her fair hair grazes,
  • Yea, the secret of the poet,
  • E’en the houris long to know it.
• • If you envy him this pleasure,
  • Or would stint him in his measure,
  • Know his poems, gently knocking,
  • For admittance hover flocking,
  • Round the gate of Eden never,
  • Doubting of the life forever.

DISCORD.

• WHEN by the brook his strain
• Cupid is fluting,
• And on the neighb’ring plain
• Mavors disputing,
• There turns the ear ere long,
• Loving and tender,
• Yet to the noise the song
• Soon must surrender.
• Loud then the flute-notes glad
• Sound ’mid war’s thunder;
• If I grow raving mad,
• Is it a wonder?
• Flutes sing and trumpets bray,
• Waxing yet stronger;
• If, then, my senses stray,
• Wonder no longer.

TALISMANS.

• GOD is of the East possess’d,
• God is ruler of the West;
• North and South alike, each land
• Rests within His gentle hand.

• He, the only righteous one,
• Wills that right to each be done.
• ’Mongst His hundred titles, then,
• Highest praise be this!—Amen.

• Error seeketh to deceive me,
• Thou art able to retrieve me;
• Both in action and in song
• Keep my course from going wrong.

THE FOUR FAVORS.

• • THAT Arabs through the realms of space
  • May wander on, light-hearted,
  • Great Allah hath, to all their race,
  • Four favors meet imparted.
• • The turban first—that ornament
  • All regal crowns excelling;
  • A light and ever-shifting tent,
  • Wherein to make our dwelling;
• • A sword, which, more than rocks and walls
  • Doth shield us, brightly glist’ning;
  • A song that profits and enthrals,
  • For which the maids are list’ning.

SONG AND STRUCTURE.

• • LET the Greek his plastic clay
  • Mould in human fashion,
  • While his own creation may
  • Wake his glowing passion;
• • But it is our joy to court
  • Great Euphrates’ torrent,
  • Here and there at will to sport
  • In the watery current.
• • Quench’d I thus my spirit’s flame,
  • Songs had soon resounded;
  • Water drawn by bards whose fame
  • Pure is, may be rounded.

CREATION AND VIVIFICATION.

• • OLD Adam was a clod of earth
  • Which God a man created,
  • Yet he, in spite of such a birth,
  • Was unsophisticated!
• • The Elohim blew down his nose
  • The breath of life most pleasing;
  • He now to something great arose:—
  • He caught a fit of sneezing.
• • Yet in his bones and limbs and head
  • He still remain’d half earthy,
  • Till Noah the bumper found, ’tis said,
  • The right thing for the worthy.
• • The clod as soon as he was wet
  • Felt wings of inspiration,
  • Just as the dough when it is set
  • Swells up with fermentation.
• • Thus Hafis, may thy lofty song,
  • Thy glorious example
  • Lead us with clinking cups along
  • To our Creator’s temple.