Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, IDEALS, by JOHANN CHRISTOPH FRIEDRICH VON SCHILLER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IDEALS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Ah faithless! Canst thou thus desert me
Last Line: Can strike out minutes, days, and years.
Alternate Author Name(s): Schiller, Friedrich Von


AH faithless! canst thou thus desert me,
With all fair thoughts and fancies gay,
With all thy joys, with all thy sorrows
Wilt thou unpitying haste away?
Ah youthful prime of golden joyance,
Can nought delay thee, fleeting fast?
In vain! The river seeks the ocean,
Eternity engulphs the Past.

Quenched are the suns whose gladsome lustre
Athwart the road of youth was cast,
And banished all the fair Ideals
That fired the rapt enthusiast;
Dead is the faith in sweet illusions,
Beings that in my dream had birth,
And reft away their god-like beauty
By rude realities of Earth.

As once, with ardent supplication,
Pygmalion clasped the sculptured form,
Until the pale cold cheeks of marble
Flushed with emotion, bright and warm;
So I, aflame with youthful passion,
Dead Nature to my bosom pressed,
Till she to breathe, to glow, to tremble,
Began upon my poet-breast;

Till, kindling to my fiery impulse,
At last the Dumb her silence broke,
With answering love returned my kisses,
And understood my heart that spoke:
The tree, the flower, for me had voices,
For me the silver fount could sing;
I felt my life's re-echoing music
Give soul to every senseless thing.

A universe of mighty yearning
Throbbed in my bosom's narrow bound,
To issue forth, to live incarnate,
In deed and word, in form and sound:
How great this world, how nobly fashioned,
While yet the bud contained it all!
How few, alas! the opened blossoms,
And even these, how weak and small!

Oh how, on wings of dauntless courage,
All blissful in his dream of truth,
Nor yet by any care embridled,
Forth on Life's journey sprang the youth!
His soaring aspirations bore him
Even to Ether's palest star;
For Hope, with strong untiring pinions,
Was nought too high and nought too far.

How lightly was he carried onward!
What power could stay his glad advance?
How swift before Life's rolling chariot
His airy escort seemed to dance!
For there was Love, with sweetest promise,
And there, with star-set crown, was Fame,
And Fortune with her golden chaplet,
And Truth all robed in sunlight came.

But ah! those bright companions vanished
Ere half the destined course was run,
They turned away their faithless footsteps,
Till all had left me, one by one.
Away fled Fortune, nimbly speeding,
The thirst to Know was unallayed,
And meeting round Truth's sunbright image,
The storms of Doubt thick darkness made.

I saw Fame's crown, of old so sacred,
Profaned upon a vulgar head;
Too soon, alas, the short spring over,
The beauteous time of Love had fled;
And every hour the silence deepened,
And lonelier grew the rugged way,
Till even Hope could scarcely lighten
Its shadows by one pallid ray.

But which of all that frolic escort
Cheered with her constant love my road --
Stays with me still, consoles, and follows --
Yes, even to the dark abode?
Thou, gentle tender hand of Friendship,
Who all my sorest wounds hast bound,
With loving aid Life's burdens bearing,
Thou, whom I early sought and found,

And thou, who journeyest with her gladly,
Like her canst quell the spirit's storms;
Diligent Work, who wearies never,
Nor ruins, slowly though she forms;
Who in Eternity's vast fabric
But grain of sand on sand-grain rears,
Yet from the debt-roll of the ages
Can strike out minutes, days, and years.







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