title: Selected Poems
author: Johann W Goethe
description: Text: English, German (translation)<br> Original Language: German
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  GOETHE
  
  
  SELECTED POEMS
  
  
  ![](index-3_1.png)
  
  
  And to the wise should it be manifest
  
  
  That good things and things pleasing to God Have always been since he said Let
  there be Light Also therefore preserved parchments
  
  
  Which tell us how the spirit hovered
  
  
  Over the deep and brought life to it
  
  
  And writings enough remain to us
  
  
  So that we may know
  
  
  Wise men and good endeavoured
  
  
  To continue God's work and imagination
  
  
  To excite the activity of the spirit
  
  
  And morally to shape circumstances on earth
  
  
  Even if the original
  
  
  Inherited crudeness always stood in their way Giving them much to do
  
  
  And much to think about.
  
  
  Goethe, Paralipomena to Gedichte (Artemis II, 550)
  
  
  GOETHE
  
  
  SELECTED POEMS
  
  
  FAUST I & ll
  
  
  ESSAYS ON ART AND LITERATURE
  
  
  FROM MY LIFE: POETRY AND TRUTH (PARTS ONE TO THREE) FROM MY LIFE: CAMPAIGN IN
  FRANCE I792 • SIEGE OF MAINZ (PART FOUR) ITALIAN JOURNEY
  
  
  EARLY VERSE DRAMAS AND PROSE PLAYS
  
  
  VERSE PLAYS AND EPIC
  
  
  WILHEL