quote · Source-linked selection
Poems are painted window panes. If one looks from the square into the church, Dusk and dimness are his gains— Sir Philistine is left in the lurch! The sight, so seen, may well enrage him, Nor anything henceforth assuage him. But come just inside what conceals; Cross the holy threshold quite— All at once ’tis rainbow-bright, Device and story flash to light, A gracious splendour truth reveals. This to God’s children is full measure, It edifies and gives you pleasure!
Poems are painted window panes. If one looks from the square into the church, Dusk and dimness are his gains— Sir Philistine is left in the lurch! The sight, so seen, may well enrage him, Nor anything henceforth assuage him. But come just inside what conceals; Cross the holy threshold quite— All at once ’tis rainbow-bright, Device and story flash to light, A gracious splendour truth reveals. This to God’s children is full measure, It edifies and gives you pleasure!
Approximate author period: c. 1790 AD · early modern
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- Goethe
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- Approximate author period: c. 1790 AD · early modern
author lifetime midpoint (1749–1832)
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken. - Recorded source
- My Commonplace Book (third English edition,1921) (1921 AD)
Page 17 · printed citation: Goethe. · compiler notes excluded
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Listed in the author section of Bartlett’s ninth-edition anthology, in the linked 1905 printing. Dates reflect that historical edition and may differ from modern scholarship.
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