BURIAL.

Portrait of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749–1832
24The Poems

To the grave one day from a house they bore

A maiden; To the window the citizens went to explore; In splendour they lived, and with wealth as of yore

Their banquets were laden. Then thought they: "The maid to the tomb is now borne; We too from our dwellings ere long must be torn, And he that is left our departure to mourn,

To our riches will be the successor,

For some one must be their possessor.

                                1827.*

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