Hope

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



We speak with the lip, and we dream in the soul,
 Of some better and fairer day;
And our days, the meanwhile, to that golden goal
 Are gliding and sliding away.
Now the world becomes old, now again it is young,
But "The better" 's forever the word on the tongue.

At the threshold of life hope leads us in--
 Hope plays round the mirthful boy;
Though the best of its charms may with youth begin,
 Yet for age it reserves its toy.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 25, 2023

25 sec read
366

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCC DEDE
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 427
Words 85
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 6, 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…

All Friedrich Schiller poems | Friedrich Schiller Books

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