Human Knowledge

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



Since thou readest in her what thou thyself hast there written,
      And, to gladden the eye, placest her wonders in groups;--
    Since o'er her boundless expanses thy cords to extend thou art able,
      Thou dost think that thy mind wonderful Nature can grasp.
    Thus the astronomer draws his figures over the heavens,
      So that he may with more ease traverse the infinite space,
    Knitting together e'en suns that by Sirius-distance are parted,
      Making them join in the swan and in the horns of the bull.
    But because the firmament shows him its glorious surface,
      Can he the spheres' mystic dance therefore decipher aright?

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 11, 2023

32 sec read
115

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABCDEFGHIG
Closest metre Iambic heptameter
Characters 649
Words 106
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 10

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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