Johann Wolfgang von Goeth

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born on August 28,1749, in Frankfurt am Main. In his early teen years he had already learnt the languages of, German, French, Italian, English, Latin, and Yiddish. In his free time he would write plays and poems for all occasions. At age sixteen he was sent to the University of Leipzig by his father, to study law. He studied there from 1765 to 1768. He lost interest in the legal system and developed …

…of Spring had caught, For me---ye gods!---this tenderness! I hoped, and I deserved it not. Yet soon the morning sun was there, My heart, ah, shrank as leave I took: How rapturous your kisses were, What anguish then was in your look! I left, you stood with downcast eyes, In tears you saw me riding off: Yet, to be loved, what happiness! What happiness, yea gods, to love! From: Early Poems (Fr Gedichte, 1768-75)