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Home  »  Poems of Places An Anthology in 31 Volumes  »  The German Muse

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Germany: Vols. XVII–XVIII. 1876–79.

Miscellaneous

The German Muse

By Friedrich von Schiller (1759–1805)

Translated by J. S. Dwight

NO Augustan summer glowed,

Or Medicean bounty flowed

O’er the soil of German art;

It was not in glory nourished,

But it blossomed full and flourished

With no care on princes’ part.

By our country’s noblest son,

By the mighty Frederick’s throne,

Unprotected, it went forth.

Well the German’s heart may beat,

Well he may with pride repeat,

He created his own worth.

Therefore mounts in loftier bows,

And in fuller torrent flows

The high hymn of German bards,

And, in its own fulness swelling,

From the heart’s own depths outwelling,

Spurns restraint, nor rule regards.