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The Joyful Wisdom ("La Gaya Scienza")

SONG OF A THEOCRITEAN GOATHERD.

Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, Levy, Oscar, Cohn, Paul V. (Paul Victor), Common, Thomas, and Petre, Maude Dominica
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Here I lie, my bowels sore,
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Hosts of bugs advancing,
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Yonder lights and romp and roar!
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What's that sound? They're dancing!
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At this instant, so she prated,
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Stealthily she'd meet me:
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Like a faithful dog I've waited,
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She promised, made the cross-sign, too,
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Could her vows be hollow?
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Or runs she after all that woo,
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Like the goats I follow?
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Whence your silken gown, my maid?
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Ah, you'd fain be haughty,
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Yet perchance you've proved a jade
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With some satyr naughty!
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Waiting long, the lovelorn wight
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Is filled with rage and poison:
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Toadstools grow in foison.
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Pinching sore, in devil's mood,
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Love doth plague my crupper:
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Truly I can eat no food:
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Seaward sinks the moon away,
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The stars are wan, and flare not:
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Dawn approaches, gloomy, grey,
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Let Death come! I care not!

Source attribution

The Joyful Wisdom ("La Gaya Scienza"), Project Gutenberg eBook #52881

AN AVOWAL OF LOVE (during which, however, the poet fell into a pit). "SOULS THAT LACK DETERMINATION."