Love

Imitated from Goethe’s “Ganymede”

by Edward Dowden 1843–1913

From Poems (1914)

Love

As with splendour of morning
Around me thou flamest,
O Spring time, my lover,
With a thousand delights and desires;
To my heart comes thronging
The sacred sense
Of thy glow everlasting,
O infinite beauty!

Would I might seize thee
In these my arms!

Ah! on thy bosom
I lie sore yearning;
Thy flowers, thy grasses,
Press close to my heart;
Fresh breeze of the morn
Thy coolest the burning
Thirst of my breast.
With love the nightingale
Calls to me from the misty valley!

I come, I am coming!
Whither? Ah, whither?
Upward! Upward the urge is!
Lower the clouds come drifting,
They stoop to the longing of love.
For me! for me!
Borne in the lap of you
Upwards!
Embracing, embraced!
Upwards, even to the bosom
Of thee all-loving, my Father!

✦ ✦ ✦

Imitated from Goethe’s “Ganymede”.

MLA

Dowden, Edward. “Imitated from Goethe’s “Ganymede”.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/dowden/161/.

Chicago

Dowden, Edward. “Imitated from Goethe’s “Ganymede”.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/dowden/161/.

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