Goethe

Apparent Death

Apparent Death - meaning Summary

Love's Seeming, Fragile Death

The speaker addresses a weeping maiden at the 'tomb' of Love, claiming Love has died apparently by accident. He immediately questions that certainty, noting he cannot prove the death. The poem suggests that what seems like nothing or mere chance can both kill and restore love. Its core idea is the instability of love: its endings may be provisional because small, accidental things can bring it back.

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Weep, maiden, weep here o'er the tomb of Love; He died of nothing--by mere chance was slain. But is he really dead?--oh, that I cannot prove: A nothing, a mere chance, oft gives him life again.

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