The Poems of Goethe Part 14

Ah! who'll e'er the days restore

Of that time so fondly cherish'd.

1789.*

----- AFTER-SENSATIONS.

WHEN the vine again is blowing,

Then the wine moves in the cask; When the rose again is glowing,

Wherefore should I feel oppress'd?

Down my cheeks run tears all-burning,

If I do, or leave my task; I but feel a speechless yearning,

That pervades my inmost breast.

But at length I see the reason,

When the question I would ask: 'Twas in such a beauteous season,

Doris glowed to make me blest!

1797.

----- PROXIMITY OF THE BELOVED ONE.

I THINK of thee, whene'er the sun his beams

O'er ocean flings; I think of thee, whene'er the moonlight gleams

In silv'ry springs.

I see thee, when upon the distant ridge

The dust awakes; At midnight's hour, when on the fragile bridge

The wanderer quakes.

I hear thee, when yon billows rise on high,

With murmur deep.

To tread the silent grove oft wander I,

When all's asleep.

I'm near thee, though thou far away mayst be--

Thou, too, art near!

The sun then sets, the stars soon lighten me.

Would thou wert here!

1795.

----- PRESENCE.

ALL things give token of thee!

As soon as the bright sun is s.h.i.+ning, Thou too wilt follow, I trust.

When in the garden thou walk'st, Thou then art the rose of all roses, Lily of lilies as well.

When thou dost move in the dance, Then each constellation moves also; With thee and round thee they move.

Night! oh, what bliss were the night!

For then thou o'ershadow'st the l.u.s.tre, Dazzling and fair, of the moon.

Dazzling and beauteous art thou, And flowers, and moon, and the planets Homage pay, Sun, but to thee.

Sun! to me also be thou Creator of days bright and glorious; Life and Eternity this!

1813.

----- TO THE DISTANT ONE.

AND have I lost thee evermore?

Hast thou, oh fair one, from me flown?

Still in mine ear sounds, as of yore,

Thine ev'ry word, thine ev'ry tone.

As when at morn the wand'rer's eye

Attempts to pierce the air in vain, When, hidden in the azure sky,

The lark high o'er him chaunts his strain:

So do I cast my troubled gaze

Through bush, through forest, o'er the lea; Thou art invoked by all my lays;

Oh, come then, loved one, back to me!

1789.*

----- BY THE RIVER.

FLOW on, ye lays so loved, so fair,

On to Oblivion's ocean flow!

May no rapt boy recall you e'er,