Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Poems

WITH eagerness he drinks the treach'rous potion,

Nor stops to rest, by the first taste misled;
Sweet is the draught, but soon all power of motion
...

WAKEN not Amor from sleep! The beauteous urchin still slumbers;
...

IF I, dearest Lily, did not love thee,

How this prospect would enchant my sight!
And yet if I, Lily, did not love thee,
...

My maiden she proved false to me;

To hate all joys I soon began,
...

THIS nosegay,--'twas I dress'd it,--

Greets thee a thousand times!
Oft stoop'd I, and caress'd it,
...

CHRIST is arisen!
Mortal, all hail!
Thou, of Earth's prison
...

Sir Wit, who is so much esteem'd,
And who is worthy of all honour,
Saw Beauty his superior deem'd
By folks who loved to gaze upon her;
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ONCE a stranger youth to Corinth came,
Who in Athens lived, but hoped that he
From a certain townsman there might claim,
As his father's friend, kind courtesy.
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HE who knows himself and others

Here will also see,
That the East and West, like brothers,
...

As a boy, reserved and naughty;
As a youth, a coxcomb and haughty;
As a man, for action inclined;
As a greybeard, fickle in mind.--
...