Goethe viewed the writing of poetry as essentially autobiographical, and the
works selected in this volume represent more than sixty years in the life of the
poet. In early poems such as "Prometheus," he rails against religion in an
almost ecstatic fervor, while "To the Moon" is an enigmatic meditation on the
end of a love affair. The Roman Elegies show Goethe's use of Classical meters in
an homage to ancient Rome and its poets, and "The Diary," suppressed for more
than a century, is a narrative poem whose eroticism is combined with its
morality. In selections from Faust, arguably his greatest and most personal
work, Goethe