These are the most singular of all the Poems of Goethe, and to
many will appear so wild and fantastic, as to leave anything but
a pleasing impression. Those at the beginning, addressed to his
friend Behrisch, were written at the age of eighteen, and most of
the remainder were composed while he was still quite young.
Despite, however, the extravagance of some of them, such as the
Winter Journey over the Hartz Mountains, and the Wanderer's
Storm-Song, nothing can be finer than the noble one entitled
Mahomet's Song, and others, such as the Spirit Song' over the
Waters, The God-like, and, above all, the magnificent sketch of
Prometheus, which forms part of an unfinished piece bearing the
same name, and called by Goethe a 'Dramatic Fragment.'
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