Classic Poem

The Ideals

Ah! cruel, must thou then depart
And leave me joyless and alone,
Forgetful of what joy and smart
In close communion we have known?
Can nothing thy departure stay,
Thou golden stage of earthly time? —
'Tis vain: thy billows roll away
To the eternal sea sublime.

Extinguished is each radiant sun
Which used my youthful steps to guide;
Ideals have their days outrun,
Which used to swell my heart with pride:
That simple faith no more is mine
Which used to issue from my dreams,
And that which once appeared divine,
Now commonplace and worldly seems.

Just as Pygmalion of yore
The marble cherished in his arms
Till e'en the chilly marble wore
The blushing glow of living charms,
So in my loving clasp I pressed
Nature with all the fire of youth,
Till, clinging to my poet's breast,
She breathed and lived in very truth.

And, sharing my ecstatic bliss,
Though speechless, soon a language found,
And recognised with loving kiss
My secret heart's tumultuous bound.
The trees and roses lived for me,
I loved the music of the streams;
The very soul-less would agree
To mingle in my sanguine dreams.

Eagerly my contracted soul
To larger, bolder thoughts was spurred:
I pictured one harmonious whole,
Perfect in deed and form and word.
How glorious appeared the world
While still within the germ it lay;
Yet as the petal sheath unfurled,
How puny and what common clay!

How, balanced on adventurous wing,
Rejoicing in his pleasant dream,
Without a care his thoughts to wring,
Youth plunged into life's giddy stream!
Through ether to the furthest star
His resolution bore him on;
No place so high, no goal so far
But with those pinions could be won.

How lightly was he borne aloft!
What was too hard for such as he?
Around his car with footsteps soft
There tripped a fairy company. —
Love, with its own especial prize,
Fortune adorned with crown of gold,
Fame soaring to the starry skies,
Truth without one concealing fold.

But, ah! ere half the way was sped
A sorry course that escort steered
With careless and perfidious tread,
Till one by one they disappeared.
Light-footed fortune fell away,
The thirst for knowledge thirst remained,
And clouds of doubt began to stray
Where once the blaze of truth had reigned.

I saw the golden crown of Fame
Encircle a plebeian brow:
Alas! too soon the climax came,
And days of Love are over now!
More grim and weird the silence fell
Upon the steep abandoned road,
Scarce could a ray of hope dispel
The gloom upon the path I trod.

Of all that merry company,
Which stood beside me to the last?
Which comforted my parting sigh?
Which will abide when all is past?
Friendship 'tis thou, whose healing balm
Is lightly spread o'er every wound,
Sharing our ills with loving calm;
Thou whom I early sought and found.

And, Labour, thou, who hand in hand
With her can exorcise the soul,
Who canst all weariness withstand,
Whose solid tasks with time unroll,
Although thou travail grain by grain
To rear Eternity sublime,
Years, minutes, days thou canst detain
From the tremendous debt of Time.EnglishJohann Christoph Friedrich Von Schiller