The Poems of Schiller — Suppressed poems

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Suppressed Poems, by Friedrich Schiller

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Title: Suppressed Poems

Author: Friedrich Schiller

Release Date: October 26, 2006 [EBook #6797]

Last Updated: November 6, 2012

Language: English

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SUPPRESSED POEMS ***

Produced by Tapio Riikonen and David Widger

SCHILLER'S POEMS

By Friedrich Shiller

SUPPRESSED POEMS.

SUPPRESSED POEMS.

     The Journalists and Minos

     Bacchus in the Pillory

     Spinosa

     To the Fates

     The Parallel

     Klopstock and Wieland

     The Muses' Revenge

     The Hypochondriacal Pluto (A Romance)

        Book I

        Book II

        Book III

     Reproach. To Laura

     The Simple Peasant

     Actaeon

     Man's Dignity

     The Messiah

     Thoughts on the 1st October, 1781

     Epitaph

     Quirl

     The Plague (A Phantasy)

     Monument of Moor the Robber

     The Bad Monarchs

     The Satyr and My Muse

     The Peasants

     The Winter Night

     The Wirtemberger

     The Mole

     Hymn to the Eternal

     Dialogue

     Epitaph on a Certain Physiognomist

     Trust in Immortality

SUPPRESSED POEMS.

   THE JOURNALISTS AND MINOS.

   I chanced the other eve,—

     But how I ne'er will tell,—

   The paper to receive.

     That's published down in hell.

   In general one may guess,

     I little care to see

   This free-corps of the press

     Got up so easily;

   But suddenly my eyes

     A side-note chanced to meet,

   And fancy my surprise

     At reading in the sheet:—

   For twenty weary springs

     (The post from Erebus,

   Remark me, always brings

     Unpleasant news to us)—

   "Through want of water, we

     Have well-nigh lost our breath;

   In great perplexity

     Hell came and asked for Death;

   "'They can wade through the Styx,

     Catch crabs in Lethe's flood;

   Old Charon's in a fix,

     His boat lies in the mud,

   "'The dead leap over there,

     The young and old as well;

   The boatman gets no fare,

     And loudly curses hell.'

   "King Minos bade his spies

     In all directions go;

   The devils needs must rise,

     And bring him news below.

   "Hurrah! The secret's told

     They've caught the robber's nest;

   A merry feast let's hold!

     Come, hell, and join the rest!

   "An author's countless band,

     Stalked round Cocytus' brink,

   Each bearing in his hand

     A glass for holding ink.

   "And into casks they drew

     The water, strange to say,

   As boys suck sweet wine through

     An elder-reed in play.

   "Quick! o'er them cast the net,

     Ere they have time to flee!

   Warm welcome ye will get,

     So come to Sans-souci!

   "Smelt by the king ere long,

     He sharpened up his tooth,

   And thus addressed the throng

     (Full angrily, in truth):

   "'The robbers is't we see?

     What trade? What land, perchance?'—

   'German news-writers we!'—

     Enough to make us dance!

   "'A wish I long have known

     To bid ye stop and dine,

   Ere ye by Death were mown,

     That brother-in-law of mine.

   "'Yet now by Styx I swear,

     Whose flood ye would imbibe,

   That torments and despair

     Shall fill your vermin-tribe!

   "'The pitcher seeks the well,

     Till broken 'tis one day;

   They who for ink would smell,

     The penalty must pay.

   "'So seize them by their thumbs,

     And loosen straight my beast

   E'en now he licks his gums,

     Impatient for the feast.'—

   "How quivered every limb

     Beneath the bull-dog's jaws

   Their honors baited him,

     And he allowed no pause.

   "Convulsively they swear,

     Still writhe the rabble rout,

   Engaged with anxious care

     In pumping Lethe out."

   Ye Christians, good and meek,

     This vision bear in mind;

   If journalists ye seek,

     Attempt their thumbs to find.

   Defects they often hide,

     As folks whose hairs are gone

   We see with wigs supplied

     Probatum! I have done!

     BACCHUS IN THE PILLORY.