Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

POESY by JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE

First Line: WHEN MEN WERE RUDE, AND ROUGH, AND WILD
Last Line: AND CLOTHED THEM IN HER SEEMLIEST DRESS.
Subject(s): ART & ARTISTS; MANKIND; WISDOM; HUMAN RACE;
WHEN men were rude, and rough, and wild,
Jove sent down Law, and Art, and Knowledge,
To form on earth a kind of college,
And make the savage creatures mild.

But the poor Virtues, when they came,
Had nought to hide their nakedness,
Till Poesy the lack supplied,
And clothed them in her seemliest dress.



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