A thrill my blood pervaded now,

I look'd and saw a beauteous maid

I asked her name--twas Kate, she said--
"Oh lovely Kate! how kind art thou!

"From death I have been sav'd by thee,

'Tis through thee only that I live;

Little 'twere life alone to give,
My joy in life then deign to be!"

And then I told my sorrows o'er,

Her eyes to earth she sweetly threw;

I kiss'd her, and she kiss'd me too,
And--then I talked of death no more.

1775.*
-----
THE MUSES' SON.

[Goethe quotes the beginning of this song in his Autobiography,
as expressing the manner in which his poetical effusions used to
pour out from him.]

THROUGH field and wood to stray,