Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 9.djvu/217

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POEMS OF GOETHE
187

Let us, let us haste to fly!
Wilder yet the sounds are growing,
And the arch fiend roars on high;
From the ground
Hellish vapours rise around.

CHORUS OF CHRISTIAN WATCHERS.

Terrible enchanted forms,
Dragon-women, men-wolf swarms!
Wilder yet the sounds are growing!
See, the arch fiend comes, all-glowing!
From the ground
Hellish vapours rise around.

CHORUS OF DRUIDS.

As from the smoke is freed the blaze,
So let our faith burn bright!
And if they crush our olden ways,
Whoe'er can crush Thy light?


The following odes are the most singular of all the poems of Goethe, and to many will appear so wild and fantastic as to leave anything but a pleasing impression. Those at the beginning, addressed to his friend Behrisch, were written at the age of eighteen, and most of the remainder were composed while he was still quite young. Despite, however, the extravagance of some of them, such as the "Winter Journey over the Hartz Mountain" and the "Wanderer's Storm-Song," nothing can be finer than the noble one entitled "Mahomet's Song," and others, such as the "Spirit Song over the Waters," "The Godlike," and, above all, the magnificent sketch of "Prometheus," which forms part of an unfinished piece bearing the same name, and called by Goethe a "Dramatic Fragment."