Fortune And Wisdom

Friedrich Schiller 1759 (Marbach am Neckar) – 1805 (Weimar)



Enraged against a quondam friend,
 To Wisdom once proud Fortune said
"I'll give thee treasures without end,
 If thou wilt be my friend instead."

"My choicest gifts to him I gave,
 And ever blest him with my smile;
And yet he ceases not to crave,
 And calls me niggard all the while."

"Come, sister, let us friendship vow!
 So take the money, nothing loth;
Why always labor at the plough?
 Here is enough I'm sure for both!"

Sage wisdom laughed,--the prudent elf!--
 And wiped her brow, with moisture hot:
"There runs thy friend to hang himself,--
 Be reconciled--I need thee not!"

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

32 sec read
52

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAB CDCD EXEX FGFG
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 573
Words 110
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4

Friedrich Schiller

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet philosopher historian and playwright During the last seventeen years of his life Schiller struck up a productive if complicated friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang Goethe with whom he frequently discussed issues concerning aesthetics and encouraged Goethe to finish works he left merely as sketches this relationship and these discussions led to a period now referred to as Weimar Classicism They also worked together on Die Xenien The Xenies a collection of short but harshly satirical poems in which both Schiller and Goethe verbally attacked those persons they perceived to be enemies of their aesthetic agenda. more…

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