Johann+Wolfgang+Von+Goethe



“Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words.” – Johann Goethe

Background
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, artist, playwright, philosopher, scientist and politician. He wrote in many different styles and on many different subjects. He wrote four novels and numerous literary and scientific fragments as well as nearly 3,000 drawings. He was born on August 28, 1749 in the Free City of Frankfurt within the Holy Roman Empire and died at the age of 82 on March 22 in Weimar, Germany. Goethe is recognized as one of the greatest and most versatile European writers and thinkers of modern times. He profoundly influenced the growth of German Romanticism. His first novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther, was one of the literary sensations of the eighteenth century. A psychological unfolding in letter form, it brings new focus to the epistolary novel. WithElective Affinities, Goethe created a new type of fiction. Instead of concentrating on one individual character, Goethe builds this novel around social concerns, the complications of human relationships, and divorce.

Lyrical Comparison
Goethe's poetry is comparable to "In love" by Prince due to the use of figurative language and a constant theme of love and heart beak.

"Ever since I met you, baby, I've been wanting you to lay down But it's so hard to get you, baby, when you never come around." Full Lyrics

The Lovely Night
Now I leave this little hut, Where my beloved lives, Walking now with veiled steps Through the shadowy leaves. Luna shines through bush and oak, Zephyr proclaims her path, And the birch trees bowing low Shed incense on her track. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">How beautiful the coolness <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Of this lovely summer night! <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">How the soul fills with happiness <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">In this true place of quiet! <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">I can scarcely grasp the bliss! <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Yet, Heaven, I would shun <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">A thousand nights like this, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">If my darling granted one.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Techniques
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Imagery - Goethe's use of imagery is very apparent in The Lovely Night, "Walking now with veiled steps through the shadowy leaves" (Geothe). This is a perfect example. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Romantic Hyperbole - In the sentence, "Yet, Heaven, I would shun a thousand nights like this, if my darling granted one" (Geothe) the author is making a very bold claim to the one they love, something very common in Goethe's literature. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Sentence Variety - Goethe changes from very complex sentences to far simpler ones, an example, "Now I leave this little hut" vs. "I can scarcely grasp the bliss! Yet, Heaven, I would shun" <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Effect in Poem - these three techniques give very intimate felling to the literature, making it very intense and poetic.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">May Song
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">How sweetly Nature <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Brightens round me! <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">How the sun’s shining! <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">How the fields gleam!

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Blossoms are bursting <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">From every leaf, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Thousands of voices <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">From bushes beneath,

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">And joy and bliss <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">From every eye. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">O Earth, O Sun! <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">O Joy, O Delight.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">O Love, O Love! <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">So golden fair, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Like morning clouds <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">On the hillside there!

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Your splendour blesses <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">The fields so fresh, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">The whole wide world <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">In a blossoming mist.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">O Darling, Darling, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">How I love you! <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">How your eyes shine! <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">How you love too!

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">So the lark loves <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Singing on high, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">And flowers at dawn <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">The scented sky,

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">As I love you <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">With veins on fire, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">You who give me <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Youth, Joy, Desire

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">For new dances <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">New poetry. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Be happy forever, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">As you love me!

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Techniques
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Imagery - Where Goethe wrote, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">"How sweetly Nature brightens round me! How the sun’s shining! How the fields gleam!" (Goethe). There is heavy imagery. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Metaphor - describes a subject by asserting that it is, on some point of comparison, the same as another otherwise unrelated object. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Romantic Hyperbole - As I love you with veins on fire, you who give me, Youth, Joy, Desire.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Effect in Poem - these three techniques give very intimate felling to the literature, making it very intense and poetic.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Welcome and Farewell
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">My heart was beating, swiftly to horse! <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Faster even than thought it was done. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Already evening cradled earth’s course, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">And night hung over the mountain cone: <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Already the misty oak-tree stood, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">A vast giant, towering upwards there, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Where from out the shadowy wood <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">A hundred dark eyes seemed to stare.

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">From a bank of cloud the Moon gazed, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Sadly out of the mist about her, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">The winds beat soft wings, and strayed <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Around my terror-stricken ears: <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">The night begot a thousand monsters, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">But my spirit was joyful, lively: <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Deep inside my veins what fire! <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Deep inside my heart what heat!

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">I saw you, and full measure of bliss <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Flowed to me from your sweet eyes: <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">I drew for you my every breath, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">My heart was wholly on your side. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Springtime’s rose-red glow, it shone <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">All about your lovely face, lit <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Tenderly for me – dear God! <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">I had hoped, but not deserved it!

<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">But ah, already at morning light <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">My heart was crushed in parting: <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">In your kisses what delight! <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">In your eyes what suffering! <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">I went, you stood, looked from above, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">And saw me go with tearful gaze: <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">And yet what joy to be loved! <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Dear God, to love what happiness!

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Techniques
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Imagery - an author's use of vivid and descriptive language to add depth to their work <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Metaphor - describes a subject by asserting that it is, on some point of comparison, the same as another otherwise unrelated object. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Simile - directly compares two things through some connective. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Effect in poem - These three techniques give a very figurative meaning to the body of work, leaving room for interpretation.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Works Cited
<span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">"Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (German Author)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 14 May 2013. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">"Goethe: Selected Poems." Goethe: Selected Poems. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 May 2013