The Wanderer's Song: Essential Poems

By (author) Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von; Translated by Kent, John
Description:
The cleft of a ginkgo leaf recalls a lover''s divided self; Greek gods and Persian poets give voice to euphoria and lamentation; and the artist must battle fiercely to bring the visions gifted by his muse intact onto the page. This fresh translation of Goethe''s poetry offers the reader an introduction to the more personal side of one of the towering figures of German letters. A novelist, dramatist, philosopher, scientist, courtier and in later life considered a sage, he was first and foremost a poet, who again and again worked out his life''s struggles through the medium of verse. Goethe is best known as the author of Faust and The Sorrows of Young Werther. This selection brings together his lyric poetry, and with it a representation of his life from childhood to old age: full of travel, romantic fixations, curiosity, nostalgia, deep thought, and above all, writing.
Table of contents:
Contents:

[We are including up to 160 poems, too many to list here. Sections listed below.]

Introductory poems
Anacreontic poems
Sesenheim
From ‘Urfaust’
Lahn and Rhine journey
Lili-lieder
Weimar
To Charlotte von Stein
Poems from the novel Wilhelm Meister
Ballads
Epigrams
Review quote:
Germany''s greatest man of letters... the last true polymath to walk the earth
Review quote:
A poet without peer...one of the smartest and wisest men of all time
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The old Eternal Genius who built the world has confided himself more to this man than to any other...From him nothing was hid, nothing withholden
Biographical note:
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), now chiefly remembered for his poetry, above all the long work Faust, was a German polymath who published fiction, drama, philosophy, travel essays, and scientific works in his lifetime, as well as verse. One of the principal figures of the Romantic movement, he is one of the most influential thinkers of the modern era.