From Faust - IV. Chorus Of Spirits

VANISH, dark clouds on high,

Offspring of night!
Let a more radiant beam
Through the blue ether gleam,

Charming the sight!
Would the dark clouds on high

Melt into air!
Stars glimmer tenderly,

Planets more fair

Shed their soft light.
Spirits of heav'nly birth,
Fairer than sons of earth,
Quivering emotions true

Hover above;
Yearning affections, too,

In their train move.
See how the spirit-band,
By the soft breezes fann'd,
Covers the smiling land,--
Covers the leafy grove,
Where happy lovers rove,
Deep in a dream of love,
True love that never dies!
Bowers on bowers rise,

Soft tendrils twine;
While from the press escapes,
Born of the juicy grapes,

Foaming, the wine;
And as the current flows
O'er the bright stones it goes,--
Leaving the hilly lands

Far, far behind,--
Into a sea expands,

Loving to wind
Round the green mountain's base;
And the glad-winged race,

Rapture sip in,
As they the sunny light,
And the fair islands bright,

Hasten to win,
That on the billows play
With sweet deceptive ray,
Where in glad choral song
Shout the exulting throng;
Where on the verdant plain

Dancers we see,
Spreading themselves amain

Over the lea.
Some boldly climbing are

O'er the steep brake,
Others are floating far

O'er the smooth lake.
All for a purpose move,

All with life teem,
While the sweet stars above

Blissfully gleam.