Goethe's Faust / translated into English verse by Sir George Lefevre.

  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Date:
1843
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Goethe's Faust / translated into English verse by Sir George Lefevre. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    For sake of that which you may crave, To yield the right which nature gave. How does he move hy one consent Each heart, subdue each element? 1s t not the harmony, which from his breast Proceeds and draws the world to rest Within his heart? Whilst nature stands Weaving her thread with careless hands Eternal round the spindle, when Confus’d, discordant throngs of men Rush jangling in discordant tone; Who life inspiring? Who alone? In even phalanx leads the throng? Who takes the stragler of the train In measure to the fold again? Who lets the storm to passion grow And sun set reddening beam to glow Within the pensive spirit? Who Sheds all spring’s choicest blossoms there Along the path where treads the fair? Who plucks tli’ unmeaning leaf from bough, And forms the wreath to merit due? Who makes Olympus firmly stand, i Unites the gods in chosen band? Man’s power, at the bard’s command! I Facetious Friend. Let, then, the choicest gifts of art Just serve to play the poet’s part; As love adventures draw us near By chance. Then feeling holds us there, And, by degrees, before we think, We stand upon the dangerous brink.
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