hey carry
with them their rhythmical atmosphere. The flow of Goethe's verse is
sometimes so similar to that of the corresponding English metre, that
not only its harmonies and caesural pauses, but even its punctuation,
may be easily retained.

I am satisfied that the difference between a translation of _Faust_ in
prose or metre is chiefly one of labor,--and of that labor which is
successful in proportion as it is joyously performed. My own task has
been cheered by the discovery, that the more closely I reproduced the
language of the original, the more of its rhythmical character was
transferred at the same time. If, now and then, there was an inevitable
alternative of meaning or music, I gave the preference to the former. By
the term "original metres" I do not mean a rigid, unyielding adherence
to every foot, line, and rhyme of the German original, although this has
very nearly been accomplished. Since the greater part of the work is
written in an irregular measure, the lines varying from three to six
feet, and the rhymes arranged according to the author's will, I do not
consider that an occasional change in the number of feet, or order of
rhyme, is any violation of the metrical plan. The single slight liberty
I have taken with the lyrical passages is in Margaret's song,--"The King
of Thule,"--in which, by omitting the alternate feminine rhymes, yet
retaining the metre, I was enabled to make the translation strictly
literal. If, in two or three instances, I have left a line unrhymed, I
have balanced the omission by giving rhymes to other lines which stand
unrhymed in the original text. For the same reason, I make no apology
for the imperfect rhymes, which are frequently a translation as well as
a necessity. With all its supreme qualities, _Faust_ is far from being a
technically perfect work.[K]

[K] "At present, everything runs in technical grooves, and the critical
gentlemen begin to wrangle whether in a rhyme an _s_ should correspond
with an _s_ and not with _sz_. If I were young and reckless enough, I
would purposely offend all such technical caprices: I would use
alliteration, assonance, false rhyme, just according to my own will or
convenience--but, at the same time, I would attend to the main thing,
and endeavor to say so many good things that every one would be
attracted to read and remember them."--_Goethe_, in 1831.

The feminine and dactylic rhymes, which have been for the most part
omitted by all metrical