Social Commentaries

The Stork's Vocation

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749–1832

Translated by Edgar Alfred Bowring (1853) · From Parables

Social Commentaries

THE stork who worms and frogs devours
That in our ponds reside,
Why should he dwell on high church-towers,
With which he's not allied?
Incessantly he chatters there,

And gives our ears no rest;
But neither old nor young can dare
To drive him from his nest.
I humbly ask it,--how can he

Give of his title proof,
Save by his happy tendency
To soil the church's roof?

MLA

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. “The Stork's Vocation.” Translated by Edgar Alfred Bowring. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/goethe/228/.

Chicago

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. “The Stork's Vocation.” Translated by Edgar Alfred Bowring. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/goethe/228/.

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