The Friendly Meeting (Sonnet)

The Friendly Meeting (Sonnet)

IN spreading mantle to my chin conceald,

I trod the rocky path, so steep and grey,

Then to the wintry plain I bent my way

Uneasily, to flight my bosom steel'd.

But sudden was the newborn day reveal'd:

A maiden came, in heavenly bright array,

Like the fair creatures of the poet's lay

In realms of song. My yearning heart was heal'd.

Yet turn'd I thence, till she had onward pass'd,

While closer still the folds to draw I tried,

As though with heat self-kindled to grow warm;

But follow'd her. She stood. The die was cast!

No more within my mantle could I hide;

I threw it off,--she lay within mine arm.

1807-8.

-THE END-
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's poem: The Friendly Meeting (Sonnet)

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