The Poems of Goethe, Translated in the Original Metres · Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1820.* ----- LINES ON SEEING SCHILLER'S SKULL.
Except to steal thee from thy prison here With pious purpose, and devoutly go Back to the air, free thoughts, and sunlight clear. What greater gain in life can man e'er know Than when God-Nature will to him explain How into Spirit steadfastness may flow, How steadfast, too, the Spirit-Born remain. HA, I am the lord of earth! The noble, Who're in my service, love me. Ha, I am the lord of earth! The noble, O'er whom my sway extendeth, love I. Oh, grant me, God in Heaven, that I may ne'er Dispense with loftiness and love! AH, ye gods! ye great immortals In the spacious heavens above us! Would ye on this earth but give us Steadfast minds and dauntless courage We, oh kindly ones, would leave you All your spacious heavens above us!
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.