The Works of J.W. Von Goethe Volume 2; Wilhelm Meister's Travels. the Recreations of the German Emigrants. the Sorrows of Young Werther. Elective Affinities (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: WITH A GOLDEN NECKLACE. Accept, dear maid, this little token, A supple chain that fain would lie, And keep its tiny links unbroken Upon a neck of ivory. Pray, then, exalt it to this duty, And change its humbleness to pride; By day it will adorn your beauty, By night 'tis quickly laid aside. But if another hand should proffer A chain of weightier, closer kind, Think twice ere you accept the offer; For there are chains will not unbind. MAY SONG. How gloriously gleameth All nature to me! How bright the sun beameth, How fresh is the lea! White blossoms are bursting The thickets among, And all the gay greenwood Is ringing with song! There's radiance and rapture That nought can destroy, 0 earth, in thy sunshine, 0 heart, in thy joy ! 0 love! thou enchanter, So golden and bright ? Like the red clouds of morning That rest on yon height; ? It is thou that art clothing The fields and the bowers, And everywhere breathing The incense of flowers ! 0 maiden ! dear maiden! How well I love thee ? Thine eye, how it kindles In answer to me! Oh! well the lark loveth Its song 'midst the blue; Oh, gladly the flowerets Expand to the dew. And so do I love thee; For all that is best, 1 draw from thy beauty To gladden my breast! And all my heart's music Is thrilling for thee ! Be evermore blest, love, And loving to me I ON THE LAKE. [This little poem was composed during a tour in Switzerland in 1776. Several others in this series belong to the same period, being that when Goethe's passion for Anna Elizabeth Schonemaun, the Lili of his poems, was at its height.] And here I drink new blood, fresh food From world so free, so blest; How sweet is nature and how good Who holds me to her br...