FAUST
A monologue from the
play by Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe
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NOTE: This monologue is reprinted
from Faust. Trans. Bayard Taylor. Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
1898. |
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- FAUST: Spirit sublime, thou gav'st me, gav'st me all
- For which I prayed. Not unto me in vain
- Hast thou thy countenance revealed in fire.
- Thou gav'st me Nature as kingdom grand,
- With power to feel and to enjoy it. Thou
- Not only cold, amazed acquaintance yield'st,
- But grantest, that in her profoundest breast
- I gaze, as in the bosom of a friend.
- The ranks of living creatures thou dost lead
- Before me, teaching me to know my brothers
- In air and water and the silent wood.
- And when the storm in forests roars and grinds,
- The giant firs, in falling, neighbor boughs
- And neighbor trunks with crushing weight bear down,
- And falling, fill the hills with hollow thunders,--
- Then to the cave secure thou leadest me,
- Then show'st me mine own self, and in my breast
- The deep, mysterious miracles unfold.
- And when the perfect moon before my gaze
- Comes up with soothing light, around me float
- From every precipice and thicket damp
- The silvery phantoms of the ages past,
- And temper the austere delight of thought.
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- That nothing can be perfect unto Man
- I now am conscious. With this ecstasy,
- Which brings me near and nearer to the Gods,
- Thou gav'st the comrade, whom I now no more
- Can do without, though, cold and scornful, he
- Demeans me to myself, and with a breath,
- A word, transforms thy gifts to nothingness.
- Within my breast he fans a lawless fire,
- Unwearied, for that fair and lovely form:
- Thus in desire I hasten to enjoyment,
- And in enjoyment pine to feel desire.
MORE MONOLOGUES BY GOETHE |
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