In the poems he had written
in Frankfort religion had been the predominant theme; in his Leipzig
effusions it was love, and love in a sufficiently Anacreontic sense.
Regarding the poetic merit of the _Neue Lieder_ German critics are for
the most part at one. With hardly an exception the love lyrics are
mere imitations of French models; their style is as artificial as
their feeling; and they give little promise of the work that was to
come from the same hand a few years later. As the expression of one of
his lover's moods, one of them, reckoned the best in the collection,
may here be given. It is entitled _Die schoene Nacht_.
[Footnote 41: Nine of these _Lieder_ Goethe thought worthy of a
permanent place in his collected works.]
DIE SCHOeNE NACHT.
Nun verlass' ich diese Huette,
Meiner Liebsten Aufenthalt;
Wandle mit verhuelltem Schritte
Durch den oeden, finstern Wald.
Luna bricht durch Busch und Eichen,
Zephyr meldet ihren Lauf;
Und die Birken streun mit Neigen
Ihr den suessten Weihrauch auf.
Wie ergoetz' ich mich im Kuehlen
Dieser schoenen Sommernacht!
O wie still ist hier zu fuehlen
Was die Seele gluecklich macht!
Laesst sich kaum die Wonne fassen,
Und doch wollt' ich, Himmel! dir
Tausend solcher Naechte lassen,
Gaeb' mein Maedchen Eine mir.
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