The Poems of Goethe

[Written on the occasion of the death, by drowning, of the Prince.]

THOU wert forcibly seized by the hoary lord of the river, --
Holding thee, ever he shares with thee his streaming
domain,
Calmly sleepest thou near his urn as it silently trickles,
Till thou to action art roused, waked by the swift-
rolling flood.
Kindly be to the people, as when thou still wert a mortal,
Perfecting that as a god, which thou didst fail in, as man.

1785.

SMOOTHLY and lightly the golden seed by the furrow is
cover'd;
Yet will a deeper one, friend, cover thy bones at the last.
Joyously plough'd and sow'd! Here food all living is
budding,
E'en from the side of the tomb Hope will not vanish
away. 1789.^*

HERE where the roses blossom, where vines round the laurels
are twining,
Where the turtle-dove calls, where the blithe cricket is
heard,
Say, whose grave can this be, with life by all the Immortals
Beauteously planted and deck'd? -- Here doth Anacreon
sleep!
Spring and summer and autumn rejoiced the thrice-happy
minstrel,
And from the winter this mound kindly hath screen'd him
at last. 1789.^*

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