Since I have found the Highest of things and the Depths of them
also, rude am I as a God, cloaked by the dark like a God.
Long have I searched and sailed on Thought’s deep billowing
ocean ; there I found me the Word: now I hold on to it fast.
Words I teach all mixed up into a devilish muddle,
Thus, anyone may think just what he chooses to think;
Never, at least, is he hemmed in by strict limitations.
Bubbling out of the flood, plummeting down from the cliff,
So are his Beloved’s words and thoughts that the Poet devises;
He understands what he thinks, freely invents what he feels.
Thus, each may for himself suck wisdom’s nourishing nectar;
Now you know all, since I’ve said plenty of nothing to you!
Kant and Fichte soar to heavens blue
Seeking for some distant land,
I but seek to grasp profound and true
That which–in the street I find.
Forgive us epigrammatists
For singing songs with nasty twists.
In Hegel we’re all so completely submerged,
But with his Aesthetics we’ve yet to be purged.
The Germans once actually stirred their stumps,
With a People’s Victory turned up trumps.
And when all that was over and done,
On every corner, everyone
Read: “Wonderful things are in store for you
Three legs for all instead of two!”
This shook them badly, and in due course
They were all smitten by deep remorse.
“Too much has happened at once, it’s plain.
We’ll have to behave ourselves again.
The rest it were better to print and bind,
And buyers will not be hard to find.”
Pull down the stars for them at night,
They burn too pale or far too bright.
The sun’s rays either scorch the eye
Or shine from much too far away.
Of Schiller there’s reason to complain,
Who couldn’t more humanly entertain.
Endowed with an elevating mind,
He didn’t stick to the daily grind.
He played with Thunder and Lightning much,
But totally lacked the common touch.
But Goethe’s taste was too nicely ordered;
He’d rather see Venus than something sordid.
Although he grasped things, as one should, from below,
It was for the Highest he made us go.
He wanted to make things so sublime
That Soul-grip evaded him most of the time.
Schiller was surely nearer the mark,
You can read his ideas in letters stark.
His thoughts are there in black and white,
Though it’s hard to fathom the meaning aright.
(Karl Heinrich Marx)
More Poetry from Karl Heinrich Marx:
Karl Heinrich Marx Poems based on Topics: God, Mind, Night, Sense & Perception, Literature, Time, Thought & Thinking, Forgiveness, Poets, Letters, People- The First Elegy (Karl Heinrich Marx Poems)
- Lucinda (Karl Heinrich Marx Poems)
- Siren Song (Karl Heinrich Marx Poems)
- Human Pride (Karl Heinrich Marx Poems)
- The Pale Maiden (Karl Heinrich Marx Poems)
- Pustkuchen (False Wandering Years) (Karl Heinrich Marx Poems)
Readers Who Like This Poem Also Like:
Based on Topics: God Poems, Night Poems, Mind Poems, Time Poems, Sense & Perception Poems, Thought & Thinking Poems, Literature Poems, People Poems, Poets Poems, Forgiveness Poems, Letters PoemsBased on Keywords: muddle, buyers, invents, kant, humanly, hegel, evaded, elevating, devises, aesthetics, fichte
- Vision of War (Lincoln Colcord Poems)
- Songs Of Seven (complete) (Jean Ingelow Poems)
- Devon's Poly-Obion (Joanna Baillie Poems)
- A Confidant Without Knowing It; Or The Stratagem (Jean de La Fontaine Poems)
- Epistle To Earl Harcourt, On His Wishing Her To Spell Her Name With Of Catherine With A K. (Joanna Baillie Poems)