West-Eastern Divan

This volume stands for the huge task of Dowden''s middle life—the translation of Goethe''s ''West-Eastern Divan.'' This is a poem, as Mrs. Dowden observes in the foreword, that is known to few English readers. It is the fruit of Goethe''s Indian Summer, the last word of his cheerful and composed philosophy of life. It was written between 1814 and 1819 and was inspired not only by Goethe''s corresp...