Goethe

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Act Decisively in Youth

The poem addresses a young person with urgent imperatives to use early years wisely and shape their character against changing fate. It presents stark alternatives—action or passivity, triumph or submission—and urges decisive striving rather than complacency. The voice warns that life is restless and that one must take a stance: to shape others or be shaped, likening the choice to being either the anvil or the hammer. The tone is prescriptive and brisk.

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Go! obedient to my call, Turn to profit thy young days, Wiser make betimes thy breast In Fate's balance as it sways, Seldom is the cock at rest; Thou must either mount, or fall, Thou must either rule and win, Or submissively give in, Triumph, or else yield to clamour: Be the anvil or the hammer.

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