Poem of Quotes - Poetry, Quotations, and Relationships
Home > Poets > 18th Century > Johann Wolfgang Goethe > Found by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Analysis & Poem

Found by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


"Found" is a poem by Goethe that is about the speaker walking through a forest. He finds a flower and brings it home to plant in his garden. It still grows there today. This can be interpreted to finding himself and growing as a person.

"Found" is a poem consisting of five stanzas with four lines each totalling 24 lines. The stanza is rhymed as ABCB, except in stanza three where it is ABAB. This could simply be a coincidence, but I doubt it. The third stanza is the climax and turning point of the overall work.



Once through the forest
Alone I went;
To seek for nothing
My thoughts were bent.

I saw i' the shadow
A flower stand there
As stars it glisten'd,
As eyes 'twas fair.

I sought to pluck it,--
It gently said:
"Shall I be gather'd
Only to fade?"

With all its roots
I dug it with care,
And took it home
To my garden fair.

In silent corner
Soon it was set;
There grows it ever,
There blooms it yet.

Written in 1815.

Below you'll find the original German text.


Ich ging im Walde
So für mich hin,
Und nichts zu suchen,
Das war mein Sinn.

Im Schatten sah ich
Ein Blümchen stehn,
Wie Sterne leuchtend
Wie Äuglein schön.

Ich wollt es brechen,
Da sagt' es fein:
Soll ich zum Welken,
Gebrochen sein?

Ich grubs mit allen
Den Würzeln aus,
Zum Garten trug ichs
Am hübschen Haus.

Und pflanzt es wieder
Am stillen Ort;
Nun zweigt es immer
Und blüht so fort.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Next: Night Thoughts
Recommended Content


Literary Movement
Weimar Classicism, 18th Century

Nature, Life, Flower