“Give me only a fragment of earth beyond the earth’s limits,”–So the godlike man said,–“and I will move it with ease.”Only give me permission to leave myself for one moment,And without any delay I will engage to be yours.

The foaming stream from out the rockWith thunder roar begins to rush,–The oak falls prostrate at the shock,And mountain-wrecks attend the gush.With rapturous awe, in wonder lost,The wanderer hearkens to the sound;From cliff to cliff he hears it tossed,Yet knows not whither it is bound:‘Tis thus that song’s bright waters pourFrom sources never known before. […]

“Vivos voco–Mortuos plango–Fulgura frango.” [1] Fast, in its prison-walls of earth,Awaits the mould of baked clay.Up, comrades, up, and aid the birthThe bell that shall be born to-day!Who would honor obtain,With the sweat and the pain,The praise that man gives to the master must buy.–But the blessing withal must descend from on high! And well […]

Man of virtue has need;-into life with boldness he plunges,Entering with fortune more sure into the hazardous strife;But to woman one virtue suffices; it is ever shiningLovingly forth to the heart; so let it shine to the eye!

I. A bridge of pearls its form uprearsHigh o’er a gray and misty sea;E’en in a moment it appears,And rises upwards giddily. Beneath its arch can find a roadThe loftiest vessel’s mast most high,Itself hath never borne a load,And seems, when thou draw’st near, to fly. It comes first with the stream, and goesSoon as […]

Where sails the ship?–It leads the Tyrian forthFor the rich amber of the liberal north.Be kind, ye seas–winds, lend your gentlest wing,May in each creek sweet wells restoring spring!–To you, ye gods, belong the merchant!–o’erThe waves his sails the wide world’s goods explore;And, all the while, wherever waft the galesThe wide world’s good sails with […]

German Faith. [1] Once for the sceptre of Germany, fought with Bavarian LouisFrederick, of Hapsburg descent, both being called to the throne.But the envious fortune of war delivered the AustrianInto the hands of the foe, who overcame him in fight.With the throne he purchased his freedom, pledging his honorFor the victor to draw ‘gainst his […]

Oh, nobly shone the fearful cross upon your mail afar,When Rhodes and Acre hailed your might, O lions of the war!When leading many a pilgrim horde, through wastes of Syrian gloom;Or standing with the cherub’s sword before the holy tomb.Yet on your forms the apron seemed a nobler armor far,When by the sick man’s bed […]

Oh thou degenerate child of the great and glorious mother,Who with the Romans’ strong might couplest the Tyrians’ deceit!But those ever governed with vigor the earth they had conquered,–These instructed the world that they with cunning had won.Say! what renown does history grant thee? Thou, Roman-like, gained’stThat with the steel, which with gold, Tyrian-like, then […]

Seeking to find his home, Odysseus crosses each water;Through Charybdis so dread; ay, and through Scylla’s wild yells,Through the alarms of the raging sea, the alarms of the land too,–E’en to the kingdom of hell leads him his wandering course.And at length, as he sleeps, to Ithaca’s coast fate conducts him;There he awakes, and, with […]

By no kind Augustus reared,To no Medici endeared,German art arose;Fostering glory smiled not on her,Ne’er with kingly smiles to sun her,Did her blooms unclose. No,–she went by monarchs slightedWent unhonored, unrequited,From high Frederick’s throne;Praise and pride be all the greater,That man’s genius did create her,From man’s worth alone. Therefore, all from loftier mountains,Purer wells and […]

Thou hast crossed over torrents, and swung through wide-spreading ocean,–Over the chain of the Alps dizzily bore thee the bridge,That thou might’st see me from near, and learn to value my beauty,Which the voice of renown spreads through the wandering world.And now before me thou standest,–canst touch my altar so holy,–But art thou nearer to […]

Whither was it that my spirit wendedWhen from thee my fleeting shadow moved?Is not now each earthly conflict ended?Say,–have I not lived,–have I not loved? Art thou for the nightingales inquiringWho entranced thee in the early yearWith their melody so joy-inspiring?Only whilst they loved they lingered here. Is the lost one lost to me forever?Trust […]

That which Grecian art created,Let the Frank, with joy elated,Bear to Seine’s triumphant strand,And in his museums gloriousShow the trophies all-victoriousTo his wondering fatherland. They to him are silent ever,Into life’s fresh circle neverFrom their pedestals come down.He alone e’er holds the MusesThrough whose breast their power diffuses,–To the Vandal they’re but stone!

‘Twas not my nectar made thy strength divine,But ’twas thy strength which made my nectar thine!

Say, where is now that glorious race, where now are the singersWho, with the accents of life, listening nations enthralled,Sung down from heaven the gods, and sung mankind up to heaven,And who the spirit bore up high on the pinions of song?Ah! the singers still live; the actions only are wanting,And to awake the glad […]

Rightly said, Schlosser! Man loves what he has; what he has not, desireth;None but the wealthy minds love; poor minds desire alone.

“Do I believe,” sayest thou, “what the masters of wisdom would teach me,And what their followers’ band boldly and readily swear?Cannot I ever attain to true peace, excepting through knowledge,Or is the system upheld only by fortune and law?Must I distrust the gently-warning impulse, the preceptThat thou, Nature, thyself hast in my bosom impressed,Till the […]

See in the babe two loveliest flowers united–yet in truth,While in the bud they seem the same–the virgin and the youth!But loosened is the gentle bond, no longer side by side–From holy shame the fiery strength will soon itself divide.Permit the youth to sport, and still the wild desire to chase,For, but when sated, weary […]

The Fortune-favored. [1] Ah! happy he, upon whose birth each godLooks down in love, whose earliest sleep the brightIdalia cradles, whose young lips the rodOf eloquent Hermes kindles–to whose eyes,Scarce wakened yet, Apollo steals in light,While on imperial brows Jove sets the seal of might!Godlike the lot ordained for him to share,He wins the garland […]