Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Aug. 28, 1749 - Mar. 22, 1832

 

The Park

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

How beautiful! A garden fair as heaven,
Flowers of all hues, and smiling in the sun,
Where all was waste and wilderness before.
Well do ye imitate, ye gods of earth,
The great Creator. Rock, and lake, and glade,
Birds, fishes, and untamed beasts are here.
Your work were all an Eden, but for this --
Here is no man unconscious of a pang,
No perfect Sabbath of unbroken rest.

M.

Source:

Poems And Ballads Of Goethe
Copyright 1859
Translator:
William Edmondstoune Aytoun, D.C.L. ("A.")
and Theodore Martin ("M.")
Delisser & Procter
508 Broadway, New York