The Wanderer's Son Essential Poems

<b>A fresh translation of the poetry of German Romantic and polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe<br><br>“Germany’s greatest man of letters… and the last true polymath to walk the earth”  — George Eliot</b><br><br>Here, in this selection of his poetry, is a representation of Goethe’s life from childhood to old age: full of travel, romantic fixations, curiosity, nostalgia, deep thought, and above all, writing.<br><br>Goethe is undoubtedly Germany’s greatest poet, as Shakespeare is England’s. This fresh translation offers the reader an introduction to Goethe’s genius. And what a genius!<br><br>Novelist, dramatist, philosopher and above all poet; a scientist with deep interests in Nature, in particular the human body, forestry, geology, botany and light; a courtier and in later life considered a sage, he was also a very frequent letter writer, no mean artist, and a man who was able throughout his life to renew and rejuvenate himself creatively, working out many of his life’s problems through his writings.<br><br>For English speakers he is probably best known as the author of <i>Faust</i>, a vast dramatic work mainly in verse which occupied him on and off throughout his long life, as well as <i>The Sorrows of Young Werther</i>, a novel of youthful despair which became the sacred text of the Romantic movement.<br><br>This volume brings together his very personal lyric poetry, hewing as close to the original form, content, and rhyme schemes as possible in English.