Goethe

Poetry and Form

Poetry and Form - meaning Summary

Form Versus Flowing Feeling

The poem contrasts two creative modes: the disciplined sculptor who shapes clay into fixed forms and the speaker who prefers immersion in a living river. The speaker finds freedom and replenishment in a fluid, emotional experience (the Euphrates) and then allows the poet’s hand to gather and solidify those feelings into verse. It’s about the balance between passionate experience and the craft that crystallizes feeling into art.

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Let the Greek mould his clay To the forms he’s planned, And take increasing pleasure In the product of his hands: But to us it’s blissful when We clutch at the Euphrates, And in the flowing element, Swish to and fro, with ease. Quenching, so, my burning soul, I’ll utter what I feel: Gathered in the poet’s pure hand The waters will congeal.

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