New Love, New Life
New Love, New Life - meaning Summary
Sudden Overwhelming New Love
Goethe's poem describes a speaker bewildered by a sudden, overpowering love that overturns his previous life. The heart no longer recognizes itself: past joys, sorrows, and routines vanish under attraction to a beloved whose presence and eyes exert a magnetic, binding force. Attempts to escape fail as an invisible thread pulls him back. The poem ends with a paradoxical plea, "Love! Love! Let me go!," revealing both enchantment and desperate loss of control.
Read Complete AnalysesHeart, my heart, what can it mean? What could trouble you so? What a strange new life, it seems! You, I no longer know. Everything you loved is done, Everything that grieved you, All your work and peace is gone – How could this overtake you! Are you caught by lovely youth By that beloved form, By those eyes so good and true, By that all-powerful force? When I try to run away, Collect myself and flee, In a moment my path strays Back to her you see. By that magic thread, so That cannot be untied, The dear wanton girl, oh She holds me fast: and I Must lie within her magic spell And live where she may go. How great the change, I tell! Love! Love! Let me go!
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