Hermann And Dorothea. In Nine Cantos. - Iii. Thalia. Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A BCDAEAFAGHIEAAFJFKAL AAMNEOAPADQNFEAQFRSA ATU EVWDAXEBYZANDD DBCEBDDAF AADDTCA2YVEEVAVB2AC2 VB2BAAVVAAD2NFDE2F2N AFBAEBD2EFFDTHE BURGHERS | A |
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Thus did the prudent son escape from the hot conversation | B |
But the father continued precisely as he had begun it | C |
What is not in a man can never come out of him surely | D |
Never I fear shall I see fulfill'd my dearest of wishes | A |
That my son should be unlike his father but better | E |
What would be the fate of a house or a town if its inmates | A |
Did not all take pride in preserving renewing improving | F |
As we are taught by the age and by the wisdom of strangers | A |
Man is not born to spring out of the ground just like a mere mushroom | G |
And to rot away soon in the very place that produced him | H |
Leaving behind him no trace of what he has done in his lifetime | I |
One can judge by the look of a house of the taste of its master | E |
As on ent'ring a town one can judge the authorities' fitness | A |
For where the towers and walls are falling where in the ditches | A |
Dirt is collected and dirt in every street is seen lying | F |
Where the stones come out of their groove and are not replaced there | J |
Where the beams are rotting and vainly the houses are waiting | F |
New supports that town is sure to be wretchedly managed | K |
For where order and cleanliness reign not supreme in high places | A |
Then to dirt and delay the citizens soon get accustom'd | L |
Just as the beggar's accustom'd to wear his cloths full of tatters | A |
Therefore I often have wish'd that Hermann would start on his travels | A |
Ere he's much older and visit at any rate Strasburg and Frankfort | M |
And that pleasant town Mannheim so evenly built and so cheerful | N |
He who has seen such large and cleanly cities rests never | E |
Till his own native town however small he sees better'd | O |
Do not all strangers who visit us praise our well mended gateways | A |
And the well whited tower the church so neatly repair'd too | P |
Do not all praise our pavements Our well arranged cover'd in conduits | A |
Always well furnish'd with water utility blending with safety | D |
So that a fire whenever it happens is straightway extinguish'd | Q |
Is not this the result of that conflagration so dreadful | N |
Six times in Council I superintended the town's works receiving | F |
Hearty thanks and assistance from every well disposed burgher | E |
How I design'd follow'd up and ensured the completion of measures | A |
Worthy men had projected and afterwards left all unfinish'd | Q |
Finally every man in the Council took pleasure in working | F |
All put forth their exertions and now they have finally settled | R |
That new highway to make which will join our town with the main road | S |
But I am greatly afraid that the young generation won't act thus | A |
Some on the one hand think only of pleasure and trumpery dresses | A |
Others wont stir out of doors and pass all their time by the fireside | T |
And our Hermann I fear will always be one of this last sort | U |
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Forthwith to him replied the excellent sensible mother | E |
Father you're always unjust whenever you speak of your son and | V |
That is the least likely way to obtain your wishes' fulfillment | W |
For we cannot fashion our children after our fancy | D |
We must have them and love them as God has given them to us | A |
Bring them up for the best and let each do as he listeth | X |
One has one kind of gift another possesses another | E |
Each one employs them and each in turn in his separate fashion | B |
Good and happy becomes My Hermann shall not be upbraided | Y |
For I know that he well deserves the wealth he'll inherit | Z |
He'll be an excellent landlord a pattern to burghers and peasants | A |
And as I clearly foresee by no means the last in the Council | N |
But with your blame and reproaches you daily dishearten him sadly | D |
As you have done just now and make the poor fellow unhappy | D |
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Then she left the apartment and after her son hasten'd quickly | D |
Hoping somewhere to find him and with her words of affection | B |
Gladden his heart for he the excellent son well deserved it | C |
Smilingly when she had closed the door continued the father | E |
What a wonderful race of people are women and children | B |
All of them fain would do whatever pleases their fancy | D |
And we're only alow'd to praise them and flatter them freely | D |
Once for all there's truth in the ancient proverb which tells us | A |
He who moves not forward goes backward a capital saying | F |
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Speaking with much circumspection the druggist made answer as follows | A |
What you say good neighbour is certainly true and my plan is | A |
Always to think of improvement provided tho' new 'tis not costly | D |
But what avails it in truth unless one has plenty of money | D |
Active and fussy to he improving both inside and outside | T |
Sadly confined are the means of a burgher e'en when he knows it | C |
Little that's good he is able to do his purse is too narrow | A2 |
And the sum wanted too great and so he is always prevented | Y |
I have had plenty of schemes but then I was terribly frighten'd | V |
At the expense especially during a time of such danger | E |
Long had my house smiled upon me decked out in modish exterior | E |
Long had my windows with large panes of glass resplendently glitterd | V |
Who can compete with a merchant however who rolling in riches | A |
Also knows the manner in which what is best can be purchased | V |
Only look at the house up yonder the new one how handsome | B2 |
Looks the stucco of those white scrolls on the green colour'd panels | A |
Large are the plates of the windows how shining and brilliant the panes are | C2 |
Quite eclipsing the rest of the houses that stand in the market | V |
Yet at the time of the fire our two were by far the most handsome | B2 |
Mine at the sign of the Angel and yours at the old Golden Lion | B |
Then my garden was famous throughout the whole country and strangers | A |
Used to stop as they pass'd and peep through my red colourd palings | A |
At my beggars of stone and at my dwarfs which were painted | V |
He to whom I gave coffee inside my beautiful grotto | V |
Which alas is now cover'd with dust and tumbling to pieces | A |
Used to rejoice in the colour'd glimmering light of the mussels | A |
Ranged in natural order around it and connoisseurs even | D2 |
Used with dazzled eyes to gaze at the spars and the coral | N |
Then in the drawing room people look'd with delight on the painting | F |
Where the prim ladies and gentlemen walked in the garden demurely | D |
And with pointed fingers presented the flowers and held them | E2 |
Ah if only such things were now to be seen Little care I | F2 |
Now to go out for everything needs to be alter'd and tasteful | N |
As it is call'd and white are the benches of wood and the palings | A |
All things are simple and plain and neither carving not gilding | F |
Now are employ'd and foreign timber is now all the fashion | B |
I should be only too pleased to possess some novelty also | A |
So as to march with the times and my household furniture alter | E |
But we all are afraid to make the least alteration | B |
For who is able to pay the present charges of workmen | D2 |
Lately a fancy possess'd me the angel Michael whose figure | E |
Hangs up over my shop to treat to a new coat of gilding | F |
And the terrible Dragon who round his feet is entwining | F |
But I have left him all brown as he is for the cost quite alarm'd me | D |
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Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
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