Arts & Sciences

Songs

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749–1832

Translated by Edgar Alfred Bowring (1853) · From Parables

Arts & Sciences

SONGS are like painted window-panes!
In darkness wrapp'd the church remains,
If from the market-place we view it;
Thus sees the ignoramus through it.
No wonder that he deems it tame,--
And all his life 'twill be the same.

But let us now inside repair,
And greet the holy Chapel there!
At once the whole seems clear and bright,
Each ornament is bathed in light,
And fraught with meaning to the sight.
God's children! thus your fortune prize,
Be edified, and feast your eyes!

MLA

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. “Songs.” Translated by Edgar Alfred Bowring. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/goethe/231/.

Chicago

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. “Songs.” Translated by Edgar Alfred Bowring. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/goethe/231/.

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