kurtiss.org | giving is receiving

WHO gives himself to solitude, Soon lonely will remain; Each lives, each loves in joyous mood, And leaves him to his pain. Yes! leave me to my grief! Were solitude’s relief E’er granted me, Alone I should not be. A lover steals, on footstep light, To learn if his love’s alone; Thus o’er me steals, by day and night, Anguish before unknown, Thus o’er me steals deep grief. Ah, when I find relief Within the tomb so lonely, Will rest be met with only!

Goethe, Wilhem Meister’s Apprenticeship, ~1795.

That he describes this encounter with loneliness as something to give yourself over to and something from which relief must be granted, I find myself lacking the sympathy I had supposed at it’s outset.