poetry tour
Lyrical me? Goethe reflected in his poetry
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Klassik Stiftung Weimar, Visitor Information tel + 49 (0) 3643 | 545-400
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Many people feel that poems reflect a writer’s personality much
better than dramas or novels. They seem to communicate authentic moods and feelings. Yet we must always ask ourselves whether
the poet was actually speaking about himself or rather an unidentified first-person narrator whose experience is explored by
the poet.
On this tour, we will encounter various poems which Goethe
wrote during his lifetime. They will help us become acquainted
with an illustrious chapter of German literary history, as well as
gain an impression of Goethe and those with whom he associated
in Weimar. We seem to encounter Werther in many of his poems,
which shows that the main character of his novel The Sorrows
of Young Werther occupied Goethe throughout his life. Whether
you are interested in (re-)acquainting yourself with Goethe or
simply wish to discover something new in his poetry is completely
up to you!
Tour duration
ca. 2.5 h (does not include tours of the buildings)
Tour length
ca. 3.5 km
Tour stops
1 Shakespeare Memorial (Park on the Ilm)
2 Schiller Bench (Park on the Ilm)
3 Roman House (Park on the Ilm)
4 Dux Bridge (Park on the Ilm)
5 Goethe Gartenhaus (Park on the Ilm)
6 House of Charlotte von Stein (Seifengasse)
7 Gingko tree (Puschkinstrasse)
8 Goethe and Schiller Monument (Theaterplatz)
9 German National Theatre
10 Goethe National Museum
11 Ducal Vault (Historic Cemetery)
Current opening hours, prices and tours at
www.klassik-stiftung.de/en/service/visitor-information
poetry tour
1
Shakespeare Memorial, Park on the Ilm
Out into Nature!
Especially in sunny, springtime weather, the Shakespeare Memorial is a wonderful place to read Goethe’s Song of May, in which
the narrator emphatically projects his feelings onto the blossoming nature. The short verses generate such dynamic rhythm that
the vitality of a spring day seems almost within our reach. The
speaker’s euphoria peaks in his exclamations in the sixth stanza,
revealing the reason for his joy: he loves a girl, who reciprocates
his love and inspires him to new creation as a poet. The poem
was written in 1771 when Goethe was in Sesenheim in the company of Pastor Brion and his family. There he developed an
intense relationship with Brion’s daughter Friederike. The experiences of this period precipitated into a series of poems which are
known today as the Sesenheim Songs.
Portraying subjects as a reflection of nature was also a determining factor in Goethe’s novel The Sorrows of Young Werther
Werther, a
principal work of Sentimentalism and of the Sturm und Drang
period. In contrast to other contemporary works, this novel did
not assume a morally pedantic attitude and thus ushered in new
autonomous form of literature. The Sturm und Drang period stylised the poet as a genius, one who produces novelty from within
and accepts no rigid rules for poetry.
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) was an important model
for the poets of this literary era. He was celebrated as the counterpoint to French Classicism. It was Goethe who especially
praised his language as being lively and seemingly close to
nature. The sculpture shows the English playwright with attributes related to the stage. It was erected in the Park on the Ilm in
1904 facing the Goethe Gartenhaus. Even though the intention
might have been different at the time, the figure is now reminiscent of Goethe’s Sturm und Drang period. He had already become
famous with his works Götz von Berlichingen and The Sorrows of
Young Werther before he came to Weimar in 1775.
Illustration of Werther, 1778
Our path leads us past the so-called Schlangenstein (snake stone)
to the Schiller Bench, from which we have a view of the Ilm and
Goethe Gartenhaus.
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Schiller Bench, Park on the Ilm | 250 m
poetry tour
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Shakespeare Memorial, Park on the Ilm
Song of May
1771
How brilliantly Nature
Beams upon me!
The glowing sunlight!
The laughing lea!
What love, o maiden,
I have for you!
Your eye is beaming
With love-light too.
From every branch
The blossoms burst,
A thousand voices
From every hurst.
So loves the skylark
Her song on high,
So morning blossoms
The balmy sky,
And joy and rapture
From every breast.
O Earth, o Sunshine,
O joy, o zest!
As I love you
With warmth athrill,
Who youth and spirit
And joy instil
O love, o loving,
So golden bright,
Like clouds of morning
On yonder height!
For ever new songs
And dances free.
Be always happy
As you love me!1
You bless with glory
The fields of green,
With blossoms’ fragrance
The earth’s rich sheen.
1 Goethe, The Lyrist, 100 Poems in New Translations facing the Originals with a Biographical Introduction, Edwin H. Zeydel (Trans.),
University of Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 2nd rev. edition, 1955, p. 30.
poetry tour
2
Schiller Bench, Park on the Ilm
Life’s Journey
Like a strong, steady current, The Sea Voyage conveys the energy
and stability of life thanks to a stringent rhyme scheme which
mirrors the content of the poem. The lyrical subject, a travelling
salesman, tarries at the port with his loaded ship and is encouraged by his friends to set off on a journey to foreign shores.
Although the beginning of the journey seems to go well, an
approaching storm threatens to change his course. However,
the storm cannot frighten the traveller, who confidently faces
his destiny.
Not only the acoustic character, but also the relationship to
nature has changed since the Song of May. Nature no longer mirrors the speaker’s feelings, but now is depicted as a threatening
force that demands action. Thus, the image of the “sea journey”
represents our path through life. Just as the seafarer is at the
mercy of wind and weather, we too must deal with the ups and
downs of life.
The poem was written in September 1776. By this time,
Goethe had lived in Weimar for almost one year. Six months earlier in April, Duke Carl August (1757–1828) had given him the
Gartenhaus near the Ilm River as a gift. Only as an owner of real
estate was Goethe eligible to become a citizen of Weimar and
assume ministerial posts. In contrast to his life as a freelance
writer in Frankfurt, Goethe now worked in a concentrated, goaloriented manner. His father and friends in Frankfurt were doubtful about the 27-year-old’s new living situation in the provincial
backwaters of Thuringia. No one knew at the time that Weimar
would become an intellectual, literary centre in Germany during
the next few years.
Goethe as a young man, 1776
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Roman House, Park on the Ilm | 350 m
poetry tour
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Schiller Bench, Park on the Ilm
The Sea Voyage
1776
Many a day and night my bark stood ready laden;
Waiting fav’ring winds, I sat with true friends
round me,
Pledging me to patience and to courage,
In the haven.
And they spoke thus with impatience twofold:
Gladly pray we for thy rapid passage,
Gladly for thy happy voyage; fortune
In the distant world is waiting for thee,
In our arms thou’lt find thy prize, and love, too,
When returning.
And when morning came, arose an uproar,
And the sailors’ joyous shouts awoke us;
All was stirring, all was living, moving,
Bent on sailing with the first kind zephyr.
And the sails soon in the breeze are swelling,
And the sun with fiery love invites us;
Fill’d the sails are, clouds on high are floating,
On the shore each friend exulting raises
Songs of hope, in giddy joy expecting
Joy the voyage through, as on the morn of sailing,
And the earliest starry nights so radiant.
But from out the damp grey distance rising,
Softly now the storm proclaims its advent,
Presseth down each bird upon the waters,
Presseth down the throbbing hearts of mortals.
And it cometh. At its stubborn fury,
Wisely ev’ry sail the seaman striketh;
With the anguish-laden ball are sporting
Wind and water.
And on yonder shore are gather’d standing,
Friends and lovers, trembling for the bold one:
Why alas, remain’d he here not with us!
Ah the tempest! Cast away by fortune!
Must the good one perish in this fashion?
Might not he perchance … Ye great immortals!
Yet he, like a man, stands by his rudder;
With the bark are sporting wind and water,
Wind and water sport not with his bosom:
On the fierce deep looks he, as a master, –
In his gods, or shipwreck’d, or safe landed,
Trusting ever.2
But by God-sent changing winds ere long he’s driven
Sideways from the course he had intended,
And he feigns as though he would surrender,
While he gently striveth to outwit them,
To his goal, e’en when thus press’d, still faithful.
2 Trans. http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-sea-voyage/
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Römisches Haus | 350 m
poetry tour
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Roman House, Park on the Ilm
Questions of Form
The rediscovery of ancient forms is what connects the poem
Roman Elegy II from 1795 to the building we are now facing.
During his sojourn to Italy, Goethe came in direct contact with
the works of the Italian Renaissance, which were an independent
revival of ancient art and consequently seemed equally “classical”
and exemplary. This encounter with Italian art prepared Goethe
to overcome his own creative crisis.
The poetry cycle Roman Elegies employs the ancient elegiac
couplet verse form. The couplets express a critique of the reception of Werther. The lyrical subject – in this poem closely related
to Goethe himself – after his flight from the “German territories”
territories”,
addresses a reading public that had enthusiastically received the
Werther novel, but in the poet’s eyes had misunderstood it and
reduced it to petty aspects. The Werther outfit, consisting of yellow trousers and a blue jacket, was the latest fashion, and
“Wertheriades”, works that followed in the tradition of the novel,
flooded the literary market. At the same time, there were long
discussions about the extent to which the events of the novel
were based on a true story, and the public eagerly sought connections in Goethe’s own past. Goethe’s answer to this speculation
was another mixture of biographical and fictive elements in the
mantle of the Augustan erotic elegy. With this gesture, he joined the
company of the ancient poets Tibull, Properz and Ovid – and let
the readers guess at the identity of the lover in the Roman Elegies.
The Roman House is also firmly anchored in the tradition
of antiquity; with its lower storey supported by compact Dorian
columns and its portico by slender Ionian columns – both references to Greek and Roman architecture. Built between 1792 and
1797 as a representative, private retreat for the Duke, the Roman
House is believed to be one of the first Classical-period buildings
constructed in Germany. The architect Johann August Arens
supervised its construction in close collaboration with Goethe,
which means that we can also regard the Roman House one of
the poet’s works as well.
Design draft of the Roman House, 1792
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Dux Bridge, Park on the Ilm | 250 m
poetry tour
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Roman House, Park on the Ilm
Roman Elegy II
1795
Honour whomever you please! But I at last am in safety!
Beautiful ladies, and you, men of the elegant world,
But did Werther really live? Did it all truly happen?
Which town has the right to boast of the lovely Lotte?
Oh, how often have I cursed those foolish pages of mine,
Which made my youthful sufferings public!
Were Werther my brother and I had killed him,
I could scarcely have been so tortured by his sorrowful spirit.
So once the ditty “Malbrough” pursued the travelling Briton,
First from Paris to Leghorn, then from Livorno to Rome,
Thence to Naples; and though he were now to sail off to far Madras,
“Malbrough” would welcome him there, “Malbrough” ring out on the quay.
Happily have I escaped, she knows of Werther and Lotte,
Yet scarcely knows the name of the man from whom they sprung.
She delights in her friend, the vigorous, liberal stranger
Who can tell her of snow, mountains and timbered houses.
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Dux Bridge, Park on the Ilm | 250 m
poetry tour
4
Dux Bridge, Park on the Ilm
Goethe and Carl August – A Lifelong Friendship
Even today, birthdays offer us a chance to reflect on the past.
Apparently, Goethe also felt this way, as shown in his poem To
Duke Carl August. He wrote it on 28 August 1787, his 38th birthday while in Rome. Goethe, who hadn’t seen the Duke for almost
a year, often thought about his friend and what was going on
back home.
The poem deals with the relationship between Carl August
and Goethe. Using the picturesque motif of a flower-strewn path,
Goethe refers to the fortunate course of his own life, influenced
to a great extent by the duke. But Goethe also expresses his wish
that his friend see to his own well-being. The last line of the
poem makes it clear – one can only be truly happy knowing that
the other is well.
Goethe’s second poem of praise for the Duke was written in
1789 and was included in the cycle Venetian Epigrams in 1800. It
emphasises the personal relationship between the poet and the
Duke. The last verse succinctly summarises their friendship; on
the one hand, the Duke was a “Maecenas” or patron to the artist,
and on the other hand he was “August” – that is, he was on a firstname basis with the poet.
Perhaps it is not immediately apparent, but here on the Dux
Bridge, we are in the midst of the friends’ cooperative work. Carl
August and Goethe worked closely together to design the park as
a landscape garden. Beginning in 1778, they had paths cleared,
trees planted, and – inspired by English landscape designers –
artificial ruins, grottos and sculptures erected. Later, Goethe abandoned the theory of garden design, but in constructing the
Roman House, he continued to influence the appearance of the
park well into the 1790s. Today the landscaped park is symbolic
for a lifelong friendship between Goethe and Duke Carl August;
the Dux Bridge lies in the centre of the line of sight connecting
Goethe’s Gartenhaus and Carl August’s Roman House.
Duke Carl August, around 1790
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Goethe Gartenhaus, Park on the Ilm | 500 m
poetry tour
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Dux Bridge, Park on the Ilm
To Duke Carl August
1787
My path you lovingly strewed
With beautiful blossoms.
In quiet occupation, my life be thanks
For all the good you have shown me.
If you did so much in care of yourself,
My happiness would be complete;
For joy comes when both are well,
Bound in friendship.3
Venetian Epigrams
1789
True, among Germany’s princes my own is accounted a small one,
Short and narrow his realm, moderate only his power.
But if the others applied theirs at home and abroad as my prince does,
Ah, to be German among Germans, what endless delight!
Why did you laud him, in that case, when actions and works are his glory,
And your reverence, too, many could whisper, is bribed?
For to me he has given what great ones most rarely have granted,
Favour, leisure and trust, fields and a garden and house.
Gratitude only to him I have owed, and my needs were most urgent,
Since, as a poet, I lacked skill from which profit accrues.
All of Europe may praise me, but what have I gained from all Europe?
Nothing! No, I have paid, dearly enough, for my verse.
Germany aped what I wrote, and in France they were eager to read me,
England, you kindly received this hypochondriac guest.
But what good does it do me if even a Chinaman’s fingers,
Sensitive, hesitant, paint Werther and Charlotte on glass?
Never an emperor asked for, and never a king cared a jot for
Me. My Maecenas was he, and my Augustus, combined.4
3 Translation: Robert Brambeer
4 Goethe: Roman Elegies and Other Poems & Epigrams,
Epigrams, Michael Hamburger (Trans.), Anvil Press Poetry Ltd, London, 1996, p. 69.
poetry tour
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Goethe Gartenhaus, Park on the Ilm
Found
Taking a stroll around the Gartenhaus, you will find many different kinds of flowers. You can almost imagine Goethe kneeling
underneath a tree and planting a flower into the soil. However,
this poem deals with more than a simple description of garden
work.
Found explains very figuratively how a pretty flower is found,
dug up and replanted. In the second verse, in the middle of the
poem, the flower itself speaks up. The personification of the
plant, in its resistance to the lyrical speaker, denotes the metaphorical idea of the flower as a woman vulnerable to the violence
of man. This motif is more clearly stated in the ballad Heidenröslein (The Heath Rose), in which the reference to a female figure is more explicit in the line “Vain ‘twas ‘gainst her fate to
kick” 5. But in contrast to the Heidenröslein, the little flower in
Found experiences a happy ending. It moves to the garden of the
pretty house and continues blossoming forever after.
Goethe wrote the folksong-like poem in 1813 – the version
here is that of the first printing in 1815 – and enclosed it in a
letter to his wife Christiane. Thus, we justifiably associate this
episode with Goethe’s first encounter with Christiane Vulpius
(1765–1816). She worked in an artificial flower workshop when
she approached Goethe for the first time in the Park on the Ilm in
1788. She begged him to help support her family after the death
of her father. After a short period of secrecy, the relationship
soon became public, and one year later, Christiane moved in with
Goethe in his Gartenhaus. Needless to say, it was a scandal in
Weimar’s higher social circles that such an admired poet would
live together with a woman from the lower class. However, the
couple’s life together was full of satisfaction and harmony. Christiane ran a well-organised household, giving Goethe the freedom
he needed to work without distraction. In turn, Goethe gave her
presents and the opportunity to participate in country outings,
festivities and other pleasurable pastimes. On 19 October 1806,
Christiane and Goethe were lawfully wed in St. Jacob’s Church.
5 Trans. Edgar Alfred Bowring (1826–1911)
Christiane Vulpius and son August, 1792
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House of Charlotte von Stein, Seifengasse | 500 m
poetry tour
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Goethe Gartenhaus, Park on the Ilm
Found
1813
Once in the forest
I strolled content,
To look for nothing
My sole intent.
I saw a flower,
Shaded and shy,
Shining like starlight,
Bright as an eye.
I went to pluck it;
Gently it said:
Must I be broken,
Wilt and be dead?
Then whole I dug it
Out of the loam
And to my garden
Carried it home,
There to replant it
Where no wind blows.
More bright than ever
It blooms and grows.6
6 Ibid., p. 79.
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House of Charlotte von Stein, Seifengasse | 500 m
poetry tour
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House of Charlotte von Stein, Seifengasse
“My life depends on yours alone”
Goethe and Charlotte von Stein
The path between the Goethe Gartenhaus and the residence of
Frau von Stein was well tread by servants in the 1770s and 1780s
delivering letters and notes back and forth between the two. The
verses that began with the line “Certain it is, I would have gone
far …” were part of Goethe’s letter to Charlotte von Stein, sent on
24 August 1784 from Brunswick. Although the verses were meant
to be included in the religious epic The Secrets, they still point to
Goethe’s relationship with the married lady in waiting at Anna
Amalia’s court.
Charlotte had read Goethe’s Werther with great enthusiasm
and was very intent to meet the poet who had written this great
work. Their first encounter was rather sobering; she doubted that
she could ever become friends with the poet. However, he was
fascinated by this elegant woman who had presented herself in
such a brilliant and disciplined way. In time, the poet and the
court lady became better acquainted and soon she was Goethe’s
closest female friend and confidante. They read, philosophised,
sketched together and maintained a stimulating intellectual dialogue. They would discuss Spinoza’s ethics after reading his
works together, for example, and then speak about Goethe’s own
work, Studie nach Spinoza.
Goethe’s sudden departure for Italy in 1786 deeply hurt Charlotte, as he had left without properly saying good-bye. After the
poet’s return to Weimar, their once intimate relationship could
not be restored. Goethe’s relationship with Christiane Vulpius
only greatened the distance between them. Around 1800, their
relationship became friendlier and was characterised by increasing respect and affection for each other. The verses To Frau von
Stein on her Birthday on 25 December 1815 are evidence of this
development. Charlotte, whose birthday was the same day as
Goethe’s son August’s, was obliged to be content with birthday
wishes in writing that year since Goethe was kept home by illness. The wording that he was suffering “in Sonnenferne” (far
from the sun) is a reference to his exuberant admiration of her in
earlier years.
Charlotte von Stein, around 1777
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Gingko tree, Puschkinstrasse | 10 m
poetry tour
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House of Charlotte von Stein, Seifengasse
From Goethe’s Letter to Frau von Stein
24 August 1784
Certain it is I would have gone far, far
as far as the world lies open,
were it not that stars too powerful to resist
have attached my fate to yours
so that now I learn to know myself only in you.
All my poetry, my thoughts, hopes and longings
strive but toward you and your being,
my life depends on yours alone.7
To Frau von Stein on her Birthday
on 25 December 1815
My thanks to God with all my heart
That you were born this day
Along with Holy Jesus
And dear, slight August too.
In the deep of wintertime
’Tis an occasion most auspicious
To send you greetings of sugar,
To sweeten the absence
For me who so far from the sun,
Quietly love, suffer and learn.8
7 Trans. Robert M. Browning, Selections from Goethe’s Letters to Frau von Stein 1776–1789, Camden House, Columbia, SC, USA, 1990, p. 225.
8 Trans. Robert Brambeer
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Gingko tree, Puschkinstrasse | 10 m
poetry tour
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Gingko tree, Puschkinstrasse
Look towards the Orient
If you stand beneath the gingko tree and look upwards, you will
notice the strange shape of the leaves. This observation is the
subject of the first stanza in the poem Gingo biloba and suggests
that perhaps there is a secret meaning to its form. The second
stanza inquires about the origin of this form by offering two antithetical alternatives. The third stanza seems to offer a solution,
but concludes in the paradoxical claim that the leaf of the gingko
tree could be both “single and double”.
One possible interpretation lies in what originally inspired
the poem. Goethe had read the collected works of the Persian
poet Hafis (1315/17–1390?) and used them as inspiration for his
own collection of poetry. Gingo biloba is part of his West-Eastern
Divan. Foreign poetry fascinated Goethe, and he identified with
the Oriental poet. The last verse of the poem symbolises this feeling: Orient and Occident may meet within the singer of these
songs, and in him, unite both cultures to form a whole.
For a visual representation of the condition of “being single and
double”, you should take a look at the Goethe-Hafis monument at
double”
Beethoven-Platz on Ackerwand, which the UNESCO presented to
the Klassik Stiftung Weimar in 2000.
The poem itself has come to symbolise the Divan, Goethe’s
poetry and specifically Goethe himself. The jewellery and souvenir shops in town have certainly played a role in demonstrating
the many uses of the gingko leaf. The gingko tree behind the
Duke’s former residence was planted in 1815, the same year
Goethe wrote the poem.
Goethe‹s attempt at Arabic calligraphy
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Goethe- und Schiller-Denkmal | 600 m
poetry tour
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Gingko tree, Puschkinstrasse
Gingo Biloba
1815
To my garden here translated,
Foliage of this eastern tree
Nourishes the initiated
With its meaning’s mystery.
Is its leaf one self divided,
Forked into a shape of strife?
Or have two of them decided
On a symbiotic life?
This I answer without trouble
And am qualified to know:
I am single, I am double,
And my poems tell you so.9
9 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Selected Poetry, David Luke (Trans.), Libris, London, 1999, p. 165.
poetry tour
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Goethe and Schiller Monument, Theaterplatz
“We got along with each other even when our opinions differed.”
It may not be apparent at first glance what connects the wittyderisive verses of the Xenions and poets’ monument. Unlike any
other text, the Xenions symbolise Goethe and Schiller’s productive friendship as they were created in poetic collaboration beginning in 1796: “We created many distichs together, sometimes I had
the idea and Schiller made the verses, sometimes it was the other
way round, and sometimes Schiller made one verse and I made the
other.” (Goethe to Eckermann, 16 December 1828)
The literary model was the ancient collection of texts by the
Roman poet Martial, called Xenia. In this case, the Xenions were
epigrams written to accompany a present for a host. Goethe and
Schiller used them in a sarcastic sense and “presented” their
mocking verses, which usually were not pleasing to the recipient
or the contemporary literary market – a sweeping blow against
writers and critics. As many as 39 pairs of verses were directed at
the popular Berlin writer of the late Enlightenment Christoph
Friedrich Nicolai, who had written a parody on Goethe’s Werther
under the title The Joys of Young Werther in 1775. Furthermore,
the Xenions can be understood as a reaction to the reserved,
even deprecating reviews of Schiller’s journal project Die Horen.
In addition to their collaboration on the Xenions, Schiller and
Goethe worked quite productively together on the whole. During
the so-called “Ballad Year” of 1797, they inspired each other to
write ballad poems. Schiller’s Wallenstein and William Tell would
have been just as unthinkable without Goethe as Goethe’s continuation of his work on Faust without Schiller.
The friendship between the two poets is visually represented
by the monument at Theaterplatz. The sculptor Christian Daniel
Rauch produced the first design draft, but passed the commission on to his student, Ernst Rietschel. The double portrait was
unveiled on 4 September 1857 in honour of Carl August’s 100th
birthday. The attempt to portray the poets as equals, right down
to their equal height, is remarkable. In reality, Goethe was quite
a bit shorter than his poet friend.
Model of the monument by Christian Daniel Rauch, 1849
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German National Theatre | 10 m
poetry tour
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Goethe and Schiller monument, Theaterplatz
Xenions
Über Nicolai
1775
Nicolai’s Motto
Truth I am preaching. ‘Tis truth; and nothing but truth – understand me.
My truth, of course! For I know none to exist but my own.
Educated Society
Ev’ry one singly considered is sensible, doubtless, and clever;
But in a body the whole number of them is a dunce.10
Artistic Device
Do you wish to appeal to both the worldly and the pious,
Then paint voluptuousness – but forget not to paint the Devil as well.
To Incompetent Critics
Difficult ‘tis to achieve; to find fault though is easy, you critics!
Have you heart though to praise where praise be deserved? 11
10 Goethe and Schiller’s Xenions. Paul Carus (trans.), The Open Court Publishing Co., Chicago, 1915.
11 Trans: Robert Brambeer
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Deutsches Nationaltheater | 10 m
poetry tour
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German National Theatre
Using Art to Teach Mankind
Seldom are personal words so closely associated with a public
venue as is the case with the poem To the Actor Krüger and the
Theaterplatz. Goethe addressed the text to the Berlin actor Georg
Wilhelm Krüger (1791–1841) in 1827 and sent it to him together
with a copy of Iphigenia in Tauris, to reward him for his excellent
work in the performance of the piece. Goethe wrote the text in
his own handwriting which underlines its intimate character. He
also chose not to include it in his complete works. It wasn’t until
after Goethe’s death that the text was cited again and again, so
that it appeared to be directed at the general public.
Its contents basically define the relationship between the
poet, the actor and the message of the work. Goethe reduces
the intention of the drama to two words: “reine Menschlichkeit”
(“pure humanity”). The actor’s task is to convey this message by
presenting the work through acting and perfect speaking. This
way, the poet’s goal can be achieved, namely to advance the reader’s aesthetic education through art and perhaps instil in him a
philanthropic disposition. The place for this kind of education is
the theatre.
The theatre in Weimar has been called the German National
Theatre since 1919; the present building dates back to 1948. But
the Weimar Court Theatre was built at this very same location in
1779, the theatre that Goethe later directed for many years. Goethe
advocated high-quality training for actresses and actors. As general theatre director, he created the so-called “Weimar Style”, a
novel combination of rhythmic declamation, body language and
expression. For him, acting and speaking characterised the artist’s
work, just as the fifth line of the following poem demonstrates.
Theatrical gestures, 1832
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Goethe National Museum | 400 m
poetry tour
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German National Theatre
To the Actor Krüger
In a copy of Iphigenia in Tauris
Weimar, 31 March 1827
What the poet within these bands
Offers with trust entwined with hope
Shall ring throughout the German lands
Because of the artist’s capable scope.
Thus in acting, thus in speaking
Lovingly proclaim afar:
For human weakness help we’re seeking
Humanity, the purest star.12
12 Trans: Jayne Obst
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Goethe National Museum | 400 m
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Goethe National Museum
Loneliness of the Spirit
The aphoristic poem Old Age seems to take a relaxed attitude
about a subject that Goethe took very seriously. Age, presented
allegorically as a polite man, is welcome to no one and has to find
his own way to reach people. Due to the irregular four-feet verse
form, also called doggerel verse, it has a cheerful rhythm that still
cannot disguise its pedantic character. In the end, the poem conveys the insight that one cannot escape getting older and so it is
better to accept it outright.
For Goethe, ageing was a very real problem, because in reality, old age and its companions, i.e. sadness, suffering and illness
found their way into his home on Frauenplan. Especially after
Schiller’s death in 1805, Goethe felt great loneliness that was
exacerbated by the deaths of other friends and companions –
Duchess Anna Amalia died in 1807, Wieland in 1813, his wife
Christiane in 1816 – which culminated in loneliness and increasing estrangement from the younger generation of Romantic
writers.
The majority of his late lyric works are gnomic poems; they
demonstrate his life-long enjoyment of sayings. Since his youth,
he enjoyed hearing and using sayings and wrote them himself
using folkloric language in doggerel verse. Thus, the reflections
on old age have a clearly wistful character, as they are associated
with memories of his youth. At the same time, Goethe was conscious of the gift of a long life. He spent the last two decades of
his life in his house on Frauenplan carefully perfecting his works
and staging his own legacy. He died at age 82 in his bedroom,
located in the rear building of his home.
Goethe at age 81, 1830
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Ducal Vault, Historic Cemetery | 800 m
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Goethe National Museum
Old Age
1814
When old age comes, he arrives politely,
Knocks once or twice at the door quite quietly;
But no one welcomes him in so pat,
and to be left outside, well, he doesn’t like that.
So he lifts the latch as quick as he can,
And now they say: what an ill-mannered man.13
13 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Selected Poetry, David Luke (Trans.), Libris,
London, 1999, p. 185.
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Ducal Vault, Historic Cemetery | 800 m
poetry tour
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Ducal Vault, Historic Cemetery
The Shadows of the Past
The Historic Cemetery provides the perfect atmosphere for reading the first part of A Trilogy of Passion, because the poem To
Werther addresses the literary character who had met his demise
many years before. Goethe wrote the poem in 1824 after the Leipzig publisher Weygand had asked him to write a foreword for a
special 50th anniversary edition of Werther. The occupation with
the occurrences during Goethe’s youth combined with the most
recent events – unreciprocated love and illness – roused painful
emotions within him.
In the poem, the aged writer is speaking, looking back on his
life. The first stanza speaks to Werther as though he were an old
school friend who died early, while the writer had been forced to
face life. The second stanza reflects on human life. It is interesting to note the words that Goethe often uses: shining and gloom,
day and night. In his late works the choice of words is characterised by formula-like speaking, by its own symbolism. The metaphors of light and darkness are basically determined by a biblical
order, but they are also important in the study of natural sciences. The visible world constitutes itself in the contrast between
light and darkness, which man can observe, but whose secrets
remain unfathomable. The next stanzas deal with the life experience of the youth who believes he owns the world, but realises in
the end how quickly the years have slipped through his fingers.
In the last sentence there is desperate hope: When the poet goes
silent in his anguish about this insight, he is left only the hope
that a higher entity will speak through him and his poetry will
survive the passing time.
Within the Ducal Vault, we perceive these “much lamented
shades”; the Classical-period building designed by Clemens Wenzeslaus Coudray serves as the final resting place of Duke Carl
August and his family, as well as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
himself.
Illustration of the room where Werther died, 1776
poetry tour
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Ducal Vault, Historic Cemetery
To Werther
from A Trilogy of Passion, 1824
And so you venture, much lamented shade,
Once more into the light of day;
On fresh green fields you meet me, unafraid
To face me and not turn away.
A visitor from earlier years you seem,
Those years when the same grass and dew, my friend,
Refreshed us both, and at day’s toilful end
We both rejoiced in the sun’s parting gleam.
Fate chose: you went before me, I remained –
Little you lost, and little I have gained.
How glorious seems a man’s allotted time,
Each day delightful, and each night sublime!
But scarcely born into this Eden, still
Scarce blessed by the exalted sun, our will,
At once confused, plunges into self-strife
Or strife with our surroundings. Thus our life
Divides, not marrying to a whole; the light
That shines in us an outward gloom may blight,
Or outward splendour darken in our eyes
And nearby joy we fail to recognise.
But then we think we see it! Womankind
With sudden powerful charm enchants our mind:
Glad as in childhood’s flower, in boyhood’s spring,
Himself the spring, the young lover, wondering
What has bewitched him so, steps forth, looks round
At the delightful world that he has found.
An unchecked haste draws him afar, on high,
No walls confining him; and as birds fly
In flocks about the wooded mountain peaks,
So he round his beloved, as he seeks
From the ethereal sky to capture her,
Her lovely eyes that hold him prisoner.
14 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Selected Poetry, David Luke (Trans.), Libris,
London, 1999, pp. 205 ff.
Too soon comes warning, then too late: his flight
Is checked, he feels himself ensnared, the sight
Of her is joy, each parting is despair,
Seeing her yet again too sweet to bear;
For empty years one moment compensates,
But last of all a cruel farewell waits.
Sadly you smile, friend, as befits your fame
Who to a dreadful parting gave your name;
For good or ill you left us here behind,
Calling your pitiable fate to mind,
Until once more passion’s uncertain maze
Drew us into its labyrinthine ways,
And love’s repeated complicated pain;
So till the end – parting and death again.
How touchingly a poet can avoid
Parting and death! Yet by such anguish cloyed
And half to blame, may he find words to sing,
Taught by some god, that tell his suffering.14