and Elmire sings in _Ermin and Elmire_:
From thee, O Nature, with deep breath
I drink in painful pleasure.
One of the gems among his Nature poems is _Autumn Feelings_ (it was
the autumn of his love for Lilli):
Flourish greener as ye clamber,
O ye leaves, to seek my chamber;
Up the trellised vine on high
May ye swell, twin-berries tender,
Juicier far, and with more splendour
Ripen, and more speedily.
O'er ye broods the sun at even,
As he sinks to rest, and heaven
Softly breathes into your ear
All its fertilizing fulness,
While the moon's refreshing coolness,
Magic-laden, hovers near.
And alas! ye're watered ever
By a stream of tears that rill
From mine eyes--tears ceasing never,
Tears of love that nought can still.
The lyrical effect here depends upon the blending of a single
impression of Nature with the passing mood--an occasional poem rare
even for Goethe.
In a letter to Frau von Stein he admitted that he was greatly
influenced by Nature:
I have slept well and am quite awake, only a quiet sadness lies
upon my soul.... The weather agrees exactly with my state of
mind, and I begin to believe that it is the weather around me
which has the most immediate effect upon me, and the great world
thrills my little one with her own mood.
Again, _To the Moon_, in the spring 1778, expresses perfect communion
between Nature and feeling:
Flooded are the brakes and dells
With thy phantom light,
And my soul receives the spell
Of thy mystic night.
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