The Conflict

Friedrich Schiller 1759 (Marbach am Neckar) – 1805 (Weimar)



No! I this conflict longer will not wage,
 The conflict duty claims--the giant task;--
Thy spells, O virtue, never can assuage
 The heart's wild fire--this offering do not ask

True, I have sworn--a solemn vow have sworn,
 That I myself will curb the self within;
Yet take thy wreath, no more it shall be worn--
 Take back thy wreath, and leave me free to sin.

Rent be the contract I with thee once made;--
 She loves me, loves me--forfeit be the crown!
Blessed he who, lulled in rapture's dreamy shade,
 Glides, as I glide, the deep fall gladly down.

She sees the worm that my youth's bloom decays,
 She sees my spring-time wasted as it flees;
And, marvelling at the rigor that gainsays
 The heart's sweet impulse, my reward decrees.

Distrust this angel purity, fair soul!
 It is to guilt thy pity armeth me;
Could being lavish its unmeasured whole,
 It ne'er could give a gift to rival thee!

Thee--the dear guilt I ever seek to shun,
 O tyranny of fate, O wild desires!
My virtue's only crown can but be won
 In that last breath--when virtue's self expires!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 16, 2023

1:00 min read
42

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIJ KLKL
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 1,043
Words 193
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

Friedrich Schiller

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet philosopher historian and playwright During the last seventeen years of his life Schiller struck up a productive if complicated friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang Goethe with whom he frequently discussed issues concerning aesthetics and encouraged Goethe to finish works he left merely as sketches this relationship and these discussions led to a period now referred to as Weimar Classicism They also worked together on Die Xenien The Xenies a collection of short but harshly satirical poems in which both Schiller and Goethe verbally attacked those persons they perceived to be enemies of their aesthetic agenda. more…

All Friedrich Schiller poems | Friedrich Schiller Books

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