Epic poem · 1797

Hermann and Dorothea

Hermann und Dorothea

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Translated by Ellen Frothingham (1870)

A domestic epic in nine cantos of unrhymed hexameters: a German innkeeper's son falls in love with a refugee girl from the Rhine, against the backdrop of the French Revolution.

Contents · 9 parts

• I. Calliope: Fate and Sympathyabout 210 lines
• II. Terpsichore: Hermannabout 270 lines
• III. Thalia: The Citizensabout 110 lines
• IV. Euterpe: Mother and Sonabout 250 lines
• V. Polyhymnia: The Citizen of the Worldabout 240 lines
• VI. Clio: The Ageabout 320 lines
• VII. Erato: Dorotheaabout 200 lines
• VIII. Melpomene: Hermann and Dorotheaabout 100 lines
• IX. Urania: Prospectabout 320 lines

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