Friedrich Schiller

“ Alas, for thee, there is no father's kiss;— He fondleth other children on his knee. How thou wilt curse our momentary bliss, When bastard on thy name shall branded be! Thy mother—oh, a hell her heart concealeth, Lone-sitting, lone in social nature's all! Thirsting for that glad fount thy love revealeth, While still thy look the glad fount turns to gall. In every infant cry my soul is hearkening, The haunting happiness forever o'er, And all the bitterness of death is darkening The heavenly looks that smiled mine eyes before. ”

“ By love are blest the gods on high,— Frail man becomes a deity When love to him is given; 'Tis love that makes the heavens shine With hues more radiant, more divine, And turns dull earth to heaven! . . . . . The gods their days forever spend In banquets bright that have no end, In one voluptuous morning-dream, And quaff the nectar's golden stream. Enthroned in awful majesty Kronion wields the bolt on high: In abject fear Olympus rocks When wrathfully he shakes his locks. To other gods he leaves his throne, And fills, disguised as earth's frail son, The grove with mournful numbers ”

“ Who, when thou glid'st amid the dark abodes, To hurl the spear and to revere the gods, Shall teach thine orphan one? HECTOR. Woman and wife beloved—cease thy tears; My soul is nerved—the war-clang in my ears! Be mine in life to stand Troy's bulwark!—fighting for our hearths, to go In death, exulting to the streams below, Slain for my fatherland! ANDROMACHE. No more I hear thy martial footsteps fall— Thine arms shall hang, dull trophies, on the wall— Fallen the stem of Troy! Thou goest where slow Cocytus wanders—where Love sinks in Lethe, and the sunless air Is dark to light and joy! ”

“ Love alike and beauty o'er, Lovely and beloved no more! Maiden, an oak that soars on high, And scorns the whirlwind's breath Behold thy Poet's youth defy The blunted dart of Death! His gaze as ardent as the light That shoots athwart the heaven, His soul yet fiercer than the light In the eternal heaven, Of Him, in whom as in an ocean-surge Creation ebbs and flows—and worlds arise and merge! Through Nature steers the poet's thought to find No fear but this—one barrier to the mind? ”

“ Thee, Francis, Francis 4, league on league, shall follow The death-dirge of the Lucy once so dear; From yonder steeple dismal, dull, and hollow, Shall knell the warning horror on thy ear. On thy fresh leman's lips when love is dawning, And the lisped music glides from that sweet well— Lo, in that breast a red wound shall be yawning, And, in the midst of rapture, warn of hell! Betrayer, what! thy soul relentless closing To grief—the woman-shame no art can heal— To that small life beneath my heart reposing! Man, man, the wild beast for its young can feel! ”

“ Does not awful Sympathy rule over E'en the realms that Evil calls its own? For 'tis Hell our crimes are ever wooing, While they bear a grudge 'gainst Heaven alone! Shame, Repentance, pair Eumenides-like, Weave round sin their fearful serpent-coils: While around the eagle-wings of Greatness Treach'rous danger winds its dreaded toils. Ruin oft with Pride is wont to trifle, Envy upon Fortune loves to cling; On her brother, Death, with arms extended, Lust, his sister, oft is wont to spring. On the wings of Love the future hastens In the arms of ages past to lie ”

“ The swallows that swarm in the sun Will fly when the north winds awaken, The false ones thine autumn will shun, For whom thou the true hast forsaken! 'Mid the wrecks of the charms in December, I see thee alone in decay, And each spring shall but bid thee remember How brief for thyself was the May! Then they who so wantonly flock To the rapture thy kiss can impart, Shall scoff at thy winter, and mock Thy beauty as wrecked as thy heart! Thy beauty thy heart hath betrayed— Thy beauty—shame, Minna, to thee To-morrow its glory will fade— And its roses all withered will be! ”

“ Gird on my sword—Beloved one, dry the tear— Lethe for love is not! AMALIA. Angel-fair, Walhalla's charms displaying, Fairer than all mortal youths was he; Mild his look, as May-day sunbeams straying Gently o'er the blue and glassy sea. And his kisses!—what ecstatic feeling! Like two flames that lovingly entwine, Like the harp's soft tones together stealing Into one sweet harmony divine,— Soul and soul embraced, commingled, blended, Lips and cheeks with trembling passion burned, Heaven and earth, in pristine chaos ended, Round the blissful lovers madly turn'd. ”

“ MELANCHOLY—TO LAURA. Laura! a sunrise seems to break Where'er thy happy looks may glow. Joy sheds its roses o'er thy cheek, Thy tears themselves do but bespeak The rapture whence they flow; Blest youth to whom those tears are given— The tears that change his earth to heaven; His best reward those melting eyes— For him new suns are in the skies! Thy soul—a crystal river passing, Silver-clear, and sunbeam-glassing, Mays into bloom sad Autumn by thee; Night and desert, if they spy thee, To gardens laugh—with daylight shine, Lit by those happy smiles of thine! ”

“ O'er its flowers the zephyr's pinions wave, O'er thine ear its murmur ne'er can steal; Love will never tinge thine eye with gold, Never wilt thou embrace thy blooming bride, Not e'en though our tears in torrents rolled— Death must now thine eye forever hide! Yet 'tis well!—for precious is the rest, In that narrow house the sleep is calm; There, with rapture sorrow leaves the breast,— Man's afflictions there no longer harm. Slander now may wildly rave o'er thee, And temptation vomit poison fell, O'er the wrangle on the Pharisee, Murderous bigots banish thee to hell! ”

“ Love bids the silvery streamlet roll More gently as it sighs along, And breathes a living, feeling soul In Philomel's sweet plaintive song; 'Tis love alone that fills the air With streams from Nature's lute so fair. Thou wisdom with the glance of fire, Thou mighty goddess, now retire, Love's power thou now must feel! To victor proud, to monarch high, Thou ne'er hast knelt in slavery,— To love thou now must kneel! Who taught thee boldly how to climb The steep, but starry path sublime, And reach the seats immortal? ”

“ Soon Saturnus will his bride discover,— So the mighty oracle hath said; Blazing worlds will turn to marriage torches When Eternity with Time shall wed! Then a fairer, far more beauteous morning, Laura, on our love shall also shine, Long as their blest bridal-night enduring:— So rejoice thee, Laura—Laura mine! TO LAURA AT THE HARPSICHORD. When o'er the chords thy fingers stray, My spirit leaves its mortal clay, A statue there I stand; Thy spell controls e'en life and death, As when the nerves a living breath Receive by Love's command! ”

“ The gods from the heavens shall even descend, And before thee their knees in deep homage shall bend, While mortals in silent submission abide The will of the giant-destroyer's loved bride; And when distant years shall see Thy last hour— SEMELE. (Springing up, and falling on her neck.) Oh, Beroe! JUNO. Then a tablet white shall bear This inscription graven there: Here is worshipped Semele! Who on earth so fair as she? She who from Olympus' throne Lured the thunder-hurler down! ”

“ Every nerve from out its barriers rises, O'er its banks, the blood begins to flow; Body seeks to join itself to body, Spirits kindle in one blissful glow. Powerful as in the dead creations That eternal impulses obey, O'er the web Arachne-like of Nature,— Living Nature,—Love exerts her sway. Laura, see how joyousness embraces E'en the overflow of sorrows wild! How e'en rigid desperation kindles On the loving breast of Hope so mild. Sisterly and blissful rapture softens Gloomy Melancholy's fearful night, And, deliver'd of its golden children, Lo, the eye pours forth its radiance bright! ”

“ Many a man to the earth it sent, Many a gap by the balls is rent— O'er the corpse before springs the hinder man, That the line may not fail to the fearless van, To the right, to the left, and around and around, Death whirls in its dance on the bloody ground. God's sunlight is quenched in the fiery fight, Over the hosts falls a brooding night! Brothers, God grant when this life is o'er In the life to come that we meet once more! ”

“ Weep ye, who never fell-for whom, unerring, The soul's white lilies keep their virgin hue, Ye who when thoughts so danger-sweet are stirring, Take the stern strength that Nature gives the few! Woe, for too human was this fond heart's feeling— Feeling!—my sin's avenger 3 doomed to be; Woe—for the false man's arm around me stealing, Stole the lulled virtue, charmed to sleep, from me. ”

“ In thee I marvel at myself—the dyes Of lovely earth seem lovelier painted there, And in the bright looks of the friend is given A heavenlier mirror even of the heaven! Sadness casts off its load, and gayly goes From the intolerant storm to rest awhile, In love's true heart, sure haven of repose; Does not pain's veriest transports learn to smile From that bright eloquence affection gave To friendly looks?—there, finds not pain a grave? ”

“ Wherever Nature's sway extends, The fragrant balm of love descends, His golden pinions quiver; If 'twere not Venus' eye that gleams Upon me in the moon's soft beams, In sunlit hill or river,— If 'twere not Venus smiles on me From yonder bright and starry sea, Not stars, not sun, not moonbeams sweet, Could make my heart with rapture beat. 'Tis love alone that smilingly Peers forth from Nature's blissful eye, As from a mirror ever! ”

“ Every ray shed from thy beauty Wastes the life-lamp while it beams, And the pulse's playful duty, And the blue veins' merry streams, Sport and run into the pall— Creatures of the Tyrant, all! As the wind the rainbow shatters, Death thy bright smiles rends and scatters, Smile and rainbow leave no traces;— From the spring-time's laughing graces, From all life, as from its germ, Grows the revel of the worm! Woe, I see the wild wind wreak Its wrath upon thy rosy bloom, Winter plough thy rounded cheek, Cloud and darkness close in gloom ”

“ Heavy interest in the tomb For the brief loan of the bloom, For the beauty of the day, Death the usurer, thou must pay, In the long to-morrow! Maiden!—Death's too strong for scorn; In the cheek the fairest, He But the fairest throne doth see Though the roses of the morn Weave the veil by beauty worn— Aye, beneath that broidered curtain, Stands the Archer stern and certain! Maid—thy Visionary hear— Trust the wild one as the sear, When he tells thee that thine eye, While it beckons to the wooer, Only lureth yet more nigh Death, the dark undoer! ”

“ Young Loves around thee fan their wings— Behind, the maddened fir-tree springs, As when by Orpheus fired: The poles whirl round with swifter motion, When in the dance, like waves o'er Ocean, Thy footsteps float untired! Thy look, if it but beam with love, Could make the lifeless marble move, And hearts in rocks enshrine: My visions to reality Will turn, if, Laura, in thine eye I read—that thou art mine! ”

“ With hues silver-tinged The meadows are fringed, And numberless suns in the dewdrop revealed. Young Nature invades The whispering shades, Displaying each ravishing charm; The soft zephyr blows, And kisses the rose, The plain is sweet-scented with balm. How high from yon city the smoke-clouds ascend! Their neighing, and snorting, and bellowing blend The horses and cattle; The chariot-wheels rattle, As down to the valley they take their mad way; And even the forest where life seems to move, The eagle, and falcon, and hawk soar above, And flutter their pinions, in heaven's bright ray. ”

“ And the Fates my still deeper abasement decreeing, Her offspring Hermione brought into being, And the bliss once mine own can ne'er glad me again! Amongst the gods do I not reign the queen? Am I not sister of the Thunderer? Am I not wife of Zeus, the lord of all? Groans not the mighty axis of the heavens At my command? Gleams not Olympus' crown Upon my head? Ha! now I feel myself! In my immortal veins is Kronos' blood, Right royally now swells my godlike heart. Revenge! revenge! Shall she unpunished ridicule my might? ”

“ The dull clods swell into the sullen mound; Earth, one look yet upon the prey we gave! The grave locks up the treasure it has found; Higher and higher swells the sullen mound— Never gives back the grave! FANTASIE—TO LAURA. Name, my Laura, name the whirl-compelling Bodies to unite in one blest whole— Name, my Laura, name the wondrous magic By which soul rejoins its kindred soul! See! it teaches yonder roving planets Round the sun to fly in endless race ”

“ Semele and Juno!—which the reptile! SEMELE. How blessed beyond all utterance would be Cadmus' daughter—wert thou Zeus! Alas! Thou art not Zeus! ZEUS. (Arises.) I am! (He extends his hand, and a rainbow fills the hall; music accompanies its appearance.) Knowest thou me now? SEMELE. Strong is that mortal's arm whom gods protect,— Saturnius loves thee—none can I e'er love But deities— ZEUS. What! art thou doubting still Whether my might is lent me by the gods And not god-born? The gods, my Semele, In charity oft lend their strength to man ”

“ Life like a spring day, serene and divine, In the star of the morning went by as a trance; His murmurs he drowned in the gold of the wine, And his sorrows were borne on the wave of the dance. Worlds lay concealed in the hopes of his youth!— When once he shall ripen to manhood and fame! Fond father exult!—In the germs of his youth What harvests are destined for manhood and fame! Not to be was that manhood!—The death-bell is knelling, The hinge of the death-vault creaks harsh on the ears— How dismal, O Death, is the place of thy dwelling! Not to be was that manhood!—Flow on, bitter tears! ”