To Emma

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



Far away, where darkness reigneth,
      All my dreams of bliss are flown;
    Yet with love my gaze remaineth
      Fixed on one fair star alone.
    But, alas! that star so bright
    Sheds no lustre save by night.

    If in slumbers ending never,
      Gloomy death had sealed thine eyes,
    Thou hadst lived in memory ever--
      Thou hadst lived still in my sighs;
    But, alas! in light thou livest--
    To my love no answer givest!

    Can the sweet hopes love once cherished
      Emma, can they transient prove?
    What has passed away and perished--
      Emma, say, can that be love?
    That bright flame of heavenly birth--
      Can it die like things of earth?

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 17, 2023

33 sec read
100

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABABCC DEDECC FXFXAA
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 671
Words 111
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6

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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