C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Homage
By Ludwig Heinrich Christoph Hölty (17481776)
O
All my duties
Pay I till my death,
Song-strains while upraising;
Ever till my death
All your virtues praising.
Joy-imbued ones,
Give life its sweet guise,
Man an angel making,
And a paradise
Of a world law-breaking.
Of true kisses
Never tasted hath,
Wanders like one fleeing
O’er life’s beaten path,—
Is an unborn being.
Of true kisses
Fully tasted hath,
Glows with Heaven’s brightness,
And along his path
Rose-groves spring in lightness.