Goethe

At Midnight’s Hour

At Midnight’s Hour - meaning Summary

Midnight Stages of Longing

The poem traces a life-long emotional journey using the recurring image of the "midnight hour." It moves from a childhood memory of walking unwillingly to the priest’s/father’s house, to youthful nocturnal meetings with a beloved, and finally to mature contemplation under a luminous moon. Each stanza heightens intimacy and inwardness, so the night shifts from external rite and yearning to a reflective state where past and future dissolve in present clarity.

Read Complete Analyses

At midnight’s hour I’d go, unwillingly, Past the Church, a little tiny boy To the priest’s, my father’s house: how beautifully Star on star shone there in the sky: At midnight’s hour. And when later on in my life, I must Go to my beloved, must, drawn by her eye, The stars and northern lights warred above, Coming and going, I breathed my delight: At midnight’s hour. Till finally the full Moon’s radiance So bright and clear overflowed my night, And swift willing Thought’s meaning glance, Swallowed past and future in its light: At midnight’s hour.

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