ook
is devoted to the _saqi_ so familiar to students of Hafid, and Goethe
does not shrink from alluding to the subject of boy-love, p. 181.

A great many of the poems, however, do not owe their inspiration to the
Orient, and many are completely unoriental. Such are, for instance,
those of the _Randsch Namah_, expressing, as they do, Goethe's opinions
on contemporary literary and aesthetic matters. Again, many are inspired
by personal experiences, and, as is now well known, the whole _Buch
Suleika_ owes its origin to the poet's love for Marianne von Willemer;
some of its finest poems have been proved to have been written by this
gifted lady. Such poems, written under the impressions of some actual
occurrence, were sometimes subsequently orientalized. Some striking
illustrations of this are given by Burdach in the essay which we cited
before and to which we refer.

As the _Divan_ was an original work, though inspired by Oriental
sources, Goethe did not feel the necessity of imitating the extremely
artificial forms of his Oriental models. Besides, he knew of these forms
only indirectly through the work of Jones. What Hammer's versions could
teach him on this point was certainly very little. Perhaps he did not
realize what an essential element form is in Persian poetry, that, in
fact, it generally predominates over the thought, and this so much that
the unity of a _gazal_ is entirely dependent on the recurrence of the
rhyme. Instead of such recurrent rhyme he employs changing rhyme and
free strophes. Only twice does he attempt anything like an imitation of
the _gazal_, but in neither case does he satisfy the technical rules of
this poetic form.[109]

From all this we see that Goethe in the _Divan_ preserves his poetic
independence. He remains a citizen of the West, though he chooses to
dwell for a time in the East. As a rule he takes from there only what he
finds congenial to his own nature. So we can understand his attitude
towards mysticism. He has no love for it; it was utterly incompatible
with his own habit of clear thinking. Speaking of Rumi, the prince of
mystics, he doubts if this poet could give a clear account of his own
doctrine;[110] the grades by which, according to Sufi-doctrine, man
rises to ultimate union with the Godhead he calls follies.[111]
Therefore to him Hafid was the singer of real love, real roses and real
wine, and this conception of the great lyric poet was also adopted by
all the later Hafizia