Nature
At Midnight Hour
Translated by Edgar Alfred Bowring (1853) · From Songs
AT midnight hour I went, not willingly,
A little, little boy, yon churchyard past,
To Father Vicar's house; the stars on high
On all around their beauteous radiance cast,
At midnight hour.
And when, in journeying o'er the path of life,
My love I follow'd, as she onward moved,
With stars and northern lights o'er head in strife,
Going and coming, perfect bliss I proved
At midnight hour.
Until at length the full moon, lustre-fraught,
Burst thro' the gloom wherein she was enshrined;
And then the willing, active, rapid thought
Around the past, as round the future twined,
At midnight hour.
Cite this poem
MLA
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. “At Midnight Hour.” Translated by Edgar Alfred Bowring. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/goethe/88/.
Chicago
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von. “At Midnight Hour.” Translated by Edgar Alfred Bowring. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/goethe/88/.
Read this poem with the Codex →