Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SECOND LIFE, by JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SECOND LIFE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: After life's departing sigh
Last Line: Come and catch that butterfly!'
Subject(s): Butterflies; Death; Insects; Reincarnation; Dead, The; Bugs; Transmigration; Pretas


AFTER life's departing sigh,
To the spots I loved most dearly,
In the sunshine and the shadow,
By the fountain welling clearly,
Through the wood and o'er the meadow,
Flit I like a butterfly.

There a gentle pair I spy.
Round the maiden's tresses flying,
From her chaplet I discover
All that I had lost in dying,
Still with her and with her lover.
Who so happy then as I?

For she smiles with laughing eye;
And his lips to hers he presses,
Vows of passion interchanging,
Stifling her with sweet caresses,
O'er her budding beauties ranging;
And around the twain I fly.

And she sees me fluttering night;
And beneath his ardour trembling,
Starts she up -- then off I hover.
'Look there, dearest!' Thus dissembling,
Speaks the maiden to her lover --
'Come and catch that butterfly!'





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