Analysis of Love As A Landscape Painter
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749 (Frankfurt) – 1832 (Weimar)
ON a rocky peak once sat I early,
Gazing on the mist with eyes unmoving;
Stretch'd out like a pall of greyish texture,
All things round, and all above it cover'd.
Suddenly a boy appear'd beside me,
Saying "Friend, what meanest thou by gazing
On the vacant pall with such composure?
Hast thou lost for evermore all pleasure
Both in painting cunningly, and forming?"
On the child I gazed, and thought in secret:
"Would the boy pretend to be a master?"
"Wouldst thou be for ever dull and idle,"
Said the boy, "no wisdom thou'lt attain to;
See, I'll straightway paint for thee a figure,--
How to paint a beauteous figure, show thee."
And he then extended his fore-finger,--
(Ruddy was it as a youthful rosebud)
Tow'rd the broad and far outstretching carpet,
And began to draw there with his finger.
First on high a radiant sun he painted,
Which upon mine eyes with splendour glisten'd,
And he made the clouds with golden border,
Through the clouds he let the sunbeams enter;
Painted then the soft and feathery summits
Of the fresh and quicken'd trees, behind them
One by one with freedom drew the mountains;
Underneath he left no lack of water,
But the river painted so like Nature,
That it seem'd to glitter in the sunbeams,
That it seem'd against its banks to murmur.
Ah, there blossom'd flowers beside the river,
And bright colours gleam'd upon the meadow,
Gold, and green, and purple, and enamell'd,
All like carbuncles and emeralds seeming!
Bright and clear he added then the heavens,
And the blue-tinged mountains far and farther,
So that I, as though newborn, enraptured
Gazed on, now the painter, now the picture.
Then spake he: "Although I have convinced thee
That this art I understand full surely,
Yet the hardest still is left to show thee."
Thereupon he traced, with pointed finger,
And with anxious care, upon the forest,
At the utmost verge, where the strong sunbeams
From the shining ground appear'd reflected,
Traced the figure of a lovely maiden,
Fair in form, and clad in graceful fashion,
Fresh the cheeks beneath her brown locks' ambush,
And the cheeks possess'd the selfsame colour
As the finger that had served to paint them.
"Oh thou boy!" exclaim'd I then, "what master
In his school received thee as his pupil,
Teaching thee so truthfully and quickly
Wisely to begin, and well to finish?"
Whilst I still was speaking, lo, a zephyr
Softly rose, and set the tree-tops moving,
Curling all the wavelets on the river,
And the perfect maiden's veil, too, fill'd it,
And to make my wonderment still greater,
Soon the maiden set her foot in motion.
On she came, approaching tow'rd the station
Where still sat I with my arch instructor.
As now all, yes, all thus moved together,--
Flowers, river, trees, the veil,--all moving,--
And the gentle foot of that most fair one,
Can ye think that on my rock I linger'd,
Like a rock, as though fast-chain'd and silent?
Scheme | ABCD ABCCBEC FXCA CGEC GXCCHIJCCHC CXDB JCDC AAA CXHG KKXCI CFAX CBCXCKKC CBKDX |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1010111110 10101111 111011110 1110101110 1000101011 1011101110 1010111010 111110110 10101010 1011101010 1010111010 1111101010 1011101011 111111010 111011011 0110101110 1011101010 10101110 0011111110 11101001110 101111110 0110111010 101110110 10101010010 1010101011 1111101010 011111110 1010101110 111110001 1110111110 11101001010 01110101 10101001 11101010 1011101010 0011101010 1111110010 1110101010 111111011 111101110 1010111111 011111010 0110101010 10111011 1010101010 1010101010 1010101010 101010111 00101011 1010111111 1110111110 0110111110 1011100010 1010101110 1111101010 1010101110 101011010 000111111 0111100110 1010101010 1110101010 1111111010 1111111010 1010101110 0010111111 1111111110 1011111010 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,815 |
Words | 515 |
Sentences | 17 |
Stanzas | 13 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 7, 4, 4, 11, 4, 4, 3, 4, 5, 4, 8, 5 |
Lines Amount | 67 |
Letters per line (avg) | 33 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 172 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 39 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 20, 2023
- 2:38 min read
- 101 Views
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"Love As A Landscape Painter" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/21713/love-as-a-landscape-painter>.
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