The Maiden From Afar

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



Within a vale, each infant year,
      When earliest larks first carol free,
    To humble shepherds cloth appear
      A wondrous maiden, fair to see.
    Not born within that lowly place--
      From whence she wandered, none could tell;
    Her parting footsteps left no trace,
      When once the maiden sighed farewell.

    And blessed was her presence there--
      Each heart, expanding, grew more gay;
    Yet something loftier still than fair
      Kept man's familiar looks away.
    From fairy gardens, known to none,
      She brought mysterious fruits and flowers--
    The things of some serener sun--
      Some Nature more benign than ours.

    With each her gifts the maiden shared--
      To some the fruits, the flowers to some;
    Alike the young, the aged fared;
      Each bore a blessing back to home.
    Though every guest was welcome there,
      Yet some the maiden held more dear,
    And culled her rarest sweets whene'er
      She saw two hearts that loved draw near.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

46 sec read
138

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCDCD EFEFGHGH IXIXEAAA
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 983
Words 152
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 8, 8, 8

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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