FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46  
47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   >>   >|  
n shows thee with exultation, All run and crowd and ask, the circle closer draws, The fiddle stops, the dancers pause, Thou goest--the lines fall back for thee. They fling their gay-decked caps on high; A little more and they would bow the knee As if the blessed Host came by. _Faust._ A few steps further on, until we reach that stone; There will we rest us from our wandering. How oft in prayer and penance there alone, Fasting, I sate, on holy mysteries pondering. There, rich in hope, in faith still firm, I've wept, sighed, wrung my hands and striven This plague's removal to extort (poor worm!) From the almighty Lord of Heaven. The crowd's applause has now a scornful tone; O couldst thou hear my conscience tell its story, How little either sire or son Has done to merit such a glory! My father was a worthy man, confused And darkened with his narrow lucubrations, Who with a whimsical, though well-meant patience, On Nature's holy circles mused. Shut up in his black laboratory, Experimenting without end, 'Midst his adepts, till he grew hoary, He sought the opposing powers to blend. Thus, a red lion,[11] a bold suitor, married The silver lily, in the lukewarm bath, And, from one bride-bed to another harried, The two were seen to fly before the flaming wrath. If then, with colors gay and splendid, The glass the youthful queen revealed, Here was the physic, death the patients' sufferings ended, And no one asked, who then was healed? Thus, with electuaries so satanic, Worse than the plague with all its panic, We rioted through hill and vale; Myself, with my own hands, the drug to thousands giving, They passed away, and I am living To hear men's thanks the murderers hail! _Wagner._ Forbear! far other name that service merits! Can a brave man do more or less Than with nice conscientiousness To exercise the calling he inherits? If thou, as youth, thy father honorest, To learn from him thou wilt desire; If thou, as man, men with new light hast blest, Then may thy son to loftier heights aspire. _Faust._ O blest! who hopes to find repose, Up from this mighty sea of error diving! Man cannot use what he already knows, To use the unknown ever striving. But let not such dark thoughts a shadow throw O'er the bright joy this hour inspires! See how the setting sun, with ruddy glow, The green-embosomed hamlet fires! He sinks and fades, the day is lived and gone, He hastens forth new scenes of life to waken. O for a
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40   41   42   43   44   45   46  
47   48   49   50   51   52   53   54   55   56   57   58   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
father
 

plague

 

passed

 

giving

 
living
 
thousands
 

Myself

 
hamlet
 

murderers

 

Wagner


embosomed

 

Forbear

 
rioted
 

scenes

 
patients
 
sufferings
 

physic

 

splendid

 
colors
 

youthful


revealed

 

flaming

 

satanic

 
hastens
 

healed

 
electuaries
 

repose

 

mighty

 

bright

 

loftier


heights

 

aspire

 
shadow
 

unknown

 

diving

 

thoughts

 
conscientiousness
 
striving
 

service

 

merits


setting

 

exercise

 

desire

 

inspires

 
honorest
 

inherits

 
calling
 

wandering

 
prayer
 

penance