Germany, (1749-1832)
RAIN AND RAINBOW
(excerpt from Parables, Part II: Three Palinodias)
- DURING a heavy storm it chanced
- That from his room a cockney glanced
- At the fierce tempest as it broke,
- While to his neighbour thus he spoke:
- “The thunder has our awe inspired,
- Our barns by lightning have been fired, –
- Our sins to punish, I suppose;
- But in return, to soothe our woes,
- See how the rain in torrents fell,
- Making the harvest promise well!
- But is’t a rainbow that I spy
- Extending o’er the dark-grey sky?
- With it I’m sure we may dispense,
- The colour’d cheat! The vain pretence!”
- Dame Iris straightway thus replied:
- “Dost dare my beauty to deride?
- In realms of space God station’d me
- A type of better worlds to be
- To eyes that from life’s sorrows rove
- In cheerful hope to Heav’n above,
- And, through the mists that hover here
- God and his precepts blest revere.
- Do thou, then, grovel like the swine,
- And to the ground thy snout confine,
- But suffer the enlighten’d eye
- To feast upon my majesty.”
- (1827)
“Dame Iris” refers to Iris, the Greek goddess of the rainbow, an errand-running messenger and cup-bearer of the Olympian gods, and most closelty aligned with Zeus and Hera. Her name contains a double meaning, being connected both with iris, “the rainbow,” and eiris, “messenger.”
Iris appears in ancient Greek vase painting as a beautiful young woman with golden wings, a herald’s rod (kerykeion), and sometimes a water-pitcher (oinochoe) in her hand. For the coastal-dwelling Greeks, the rainbow’s arc was most often seen spanning the distance beteween clouds and the sea, and so the goddess was believed to replenish the rain-clouds with water from the sea.
Faust I – The first part of the Tragedy
(excerpt)
NOTE: Here, towards the end of the first part of Faust, Mephistopheles and Faust exit the regular comings and doings — and time and space — of humans to take part in the Walpurgisnacht, the annual gathering of witches to dance with the devil at the Blocksberg, the tallest mountain in the Harz. On their way to the mountain, Faust and Mephistopheles are overtaken by a storm of witches gathering. Out of the seeming chaos of voices and movement, Baubo’s entrance is announced and she is called to lead the procession to the mountain:
- Mephistopheles:
- (…)
- In the distance and nearby?
- The whole mountain is afire
- With a furious magic choir.
- Witches’ Chorus:
- The witches ride to Blocksberg’s top,
- The stubble is yellow, and green the crop.
- They gather on the mountainside,
- Sir Urian comes to preside.
- We are riding over crag and brink,
- The witches fart, the billy goat stinks.
- Voice:
- Old Baubo comes alone right now,
- She is riding on a mother sow.
- Chorus:
- Give honor to whom honor’s due!
- Dame Baubo, lead our retinue!
- A real swine and mother too,
- The witches’ crew will follow you.
About the Poet:
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was a German writer, artist, and politician, well known as a poet, novelist, playwright, natural philosopher, diplomat and civil servant.
His body of work includes epic and lyric poetry written in a variety of metres and styles; prose and verse dramas; memoirs; an autobiography; literary and aesthetic criticism; treatises on botany, anatomy, and colour; and four novels. In addition, numerous literary and scientific fragments, and over 10,000 letters written by him are extant, as are nearly 3,000 drawings.
Notable works include: Faust; The Sorrows of Young Werther; Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship; Elective Affinities; and Prometheus. [DES-07/12]