YE fleeting phantoms,* ye approach again! Still that illusion doth my heart adore ?† As forth from mist and cloud towards me ye soar; My bosom flutters youthfully again At the witched atmosphere § that plays around your train. In ye the forms of happier days I hail, Amongst ye many much-loved shades upspring, Like to an olden half-forgotten tale,|| First love and friendship in your ranks ye bring, * Schwankende gestalten.-Schwanken is to waver, a figure that flits before our eyes, so that we cannot fix it, is called a schwankende gestalt. As empty clouds by rising winds are tossed, Their fleeting forms scarce sooner found than lost.-PRIOR. Faust was one of the earliest conceptions of Goethe, was, though intermittingly, the work of his whole life, and was finished not many weeks before that life terminated. Walten indicates uncontrolled power. § Hauch is the motion of the air, caused by breathing, as contradistinguished from Athem, animal breath. Literally like an ancient half-expired tradition. The pain revives, and it recalls the wail That moans life's labyrinthine wandering, And names the friends that of their hours of light By fate beguiled have vanished from my sight. The following songs alas they cannot hear, Those souls for whom I tuned my early lay,* The friendly throng is scattered far and near, The old responsive echo died away. To crowds unknown I voice my sorrow drear, Even their applause upon my heart doth weigh, And those that in my songs rejoiced of yore, And still survive, dispersed, wander the wide world o'er. There seizes me a yearning long unknown, My faltering song in inarticulate tone, Like an Eolian harp floats faint and low, And things long disappeared become realities. * Many years elapsed between the commencement of Faust and its completion, towards the end of which period the dedication was composed. ERRATA. Page 3, line 5, for on, read o'er. 57, ,, 58, 58, وو دو 66,,, 66, 92, دو 95, 95, 9, for unnerving, read unreviving. 3, for heart and heart, read head and heart. 12, for your, read thine. 2, for dusty, read lofty. 10, for overwrought, read o'erwrought. 15, for clogs, read cloys. 6, read upon the path. 9, for or, read for. 21, for and, read under. 7, for world, read word. 9, for to, read in. 3, for house, read hour. 4, for 'Ti, read 'Tis. 12, for the, read their. 136, last line, for do, read doth. 146, line 7, for head, read heart. 153, 10, for gape, read squeak. وو 11, for put, read just. 12, the following lines omitted: Doth a witched atmosphere envelope me? In a wild dream of love how feel distraught, 9, read Includes-sustains he not. 13, for DEVOUT GENIUS, read CI DEVANT GENIUS. 6, MARGARET flings herself beside him. |