To Goethe, On His Producing Voltaire's "mahomet" On The Stage Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: ABABABCD EFEFEGHH IJIJIJKK LMGMLMNO PQPQPQRR SOSOSOTU VDSDWDSS XDYTXTYY TATATADD TDTDTDZZ

Thou by whom freed from rules constrained and wrongA
On truth and nature once again we're placedB
Who in the cradle e'en a hero strongA
Stiffest the serpents round our genius lacedB
Thou whom the godlike science has so longA
With her unsullied sacred fillet gracedB
Dost thou on ruined altars sacrificeC
To that false muse whom we no longer prizeD
-
This theatre belongs to native artE
No foreign idols worshipped here are seenF
A laurel we can show with joyous heartE
That on the German Pindus has grown greenF
The sciences' most holy hidden partE
The German genius dares to enter e'enG
And following the Briton and the GreekH
A nobler glory now attempts to seekH
-
For yonder where slaves kneel and despots holdI
The reins where spurious greatness lifts its headJ
Art has no power the noble there to mouldI
'Tis by no Louis that its seed is spreadJ
From its own fulness it must needs unfoldI
By earthly majesty 'tis never fedJ
'Tis with truth only it can e'er uniteK
Its glow free spirits only e'er can lightK
-
'Tis not to bind us in a worn out chainL
Thou dost this play of olden time recallM
'Tis not to seek to lead us back againG
To days when thoughtless childhood ruled o'er allM
It were in truth an idle risk and vainL
Into the moving wheel of time to fallM
The winged hours forever bear it onN
The new arrives and lo the old has goneO
-
The narrow theatre is now more wideP
Into its space a universe now stealsQ
In pompous words no longer is our prideP
Nature we love when she her form revealsQ
Fashion's false rules no more are deifiedP
And as a man the hero acts and feelsQ
'Tis passion makes the notes of freedom soundR
And 'tis in truth the beautiful is foundR
-
Weak is the frame of Thespis' chariot fairS
Resembling much the bark of AcheronO
That carries naught but shades and forms of airS
And if rude life should venture to press onO
The fragile bark its weight no more can bearS
For fleeting spirits it can hold aloneO
Appearance ne'er can reach realityT
If nature be victorious art must flyU
-
For on the stage's boarded scaffold hereV
A world ideal opens to our eyesD
Nothing is true and genuine save a tearS
Emotion on no dream of sense reliesD
The real Melpomene is still sincereW
Naught as a fable merely she suppliesD
By truth profound to charm us is her careS
The false one truth pretends but to ensnareS
-
Now from the scene art threatens to retireX
Her kingdom wild maintains still phantasyD
The stage she like the world would set on fireY
The meanest and the noblest mingles sheT
The Frank alone 'tis art can now inspireX
And yet her archetype can his ne'er beT
In bounds unchangeable confining herY
He holds her fast and vainly would she stirY
-
The stage to him is pure and undefiledT
Chased from the regions that to her belongA
Are Nature's tones so careless and so wildT
To him e'en language rises into songA
A realm harmonious 'tis of beauty mildT
Where limb unites to limb in order strongA
The whole into a solemn temple blendsD
And 'tis the dance that grace to motion lendsD
-
And yet the Frank must not be made our guideT
For in his art no living spirit reignsD
The boasting gestures of a spurious prideT
That mind which only loves the true disdainsD
To nobler ends alone be it appliedT
Returning like some soul's long vanished manesD
To render the oft sullied stage once moreZ
A throne befitting the great muse of yoreZ

Friedrich Schiller



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