The Poetry Corner

Scene A Garden,

By Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Margaret. Faust. MARGARET. DOST thou believe in God? FAUST. Doth mortal live Who dares to say that he believes in God? Go, bid the priest a truthful answer give, Go, ask the wisest who on earth e'er trod, Their answer will appear to be Given alone in mockery. MARGARET. Then thou dost not believe? This sayest thou? FAUST. Sweet love, mistake not what I utter now! Who knows His name? Who dares proclaim: Him I believe? Who so can feel His heart to steel To sari believe Him not? The All-Embracer, The All-Sustained, Holds and sustains He not Thee, me, Himself? Hang not the heavens their arch overhead? Lies not the earth beneath us, firm? Gleam not with kindly glances Eternal stars on high? Looks not mine eye deep into thine? And do not all things Crowd on thy head and heart, And round thee twine, in mystery eterne, Invisible, yet visible? Fill, then, thy heart, however vast, with this, And when the feeling perfecteth thy bliss, O, call it what thou wilt, Call it joy! heart! love! God! No name for it I know! 'Tis feeling all nought else; Name is but sound and smoke, Obscuring heaven's bright glow.