are possible.

The value of form, in a poetical work, is the first question to be
considered. No poet ever understood this question more thoroughly than
Goethe himself, or expressed a more positive opinion in regard to it.
The alternative modes of translation which he presents (reported by
Riemer, quoted by Mrs. Austin, in her "Characteristics of Goethe," and
accepted by Mr. Hayward),[A] are quite independent of his views
concerning the value of form, which we find given elsewhere, in the
clearest and most emphatic manner.[B] Poetry is not simply a fashion of
expression: it is the form of expression absolutely required by a
certain class of ideas. Poetry, indeed, may be distinguished from Prose
by the single circumstance, that it is the utterance of whatever in man
cannot be perfectly uttered in any other than a rhythmical form: it is
useless to say that the naked meaning is independent of the form: on the
contrary, the form contributes essentially to the fullness of the
meaning. In Poetry which endures through its own inherent vitality,
there is no forced union of these two elements. They are as intimately
blended, and with the same mysterious beauty, as the sexes in the
ancient Hermaphroditus. To attempt to represent Poetry in Prose, is very
much like attempting to translate music into speech.[C]

[A] "'There are two maxims of translation,' says he: 'the one requires
that the author, of a foreign nation, be brought to us in such a manner
that we may regard him as our own; the other, on the contrary, demands
of us that we transport ourselves over to him, and adopt his situation,
his mode of speaking, and his peculiarities. The advantages of both are
sufficiently known to all instructed persons, from masterly examples.'"
Is it necessary, however, that there should always be this alternative?
Where the languages are kindred, and equally capable of all varieties of