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Early Modern · 1657
The Cherubinic Wanderer
Der Cherubinische Wandersmann
Angelus Silesius · 1624–1677
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What it is
Sixteen hundred rhymed couplets of mystical paradox — the rose is without why, and God would perish if the poet ceased to be.
Why it lasted
The finest German mystical poetry, written by a Lutheran convert to Catholicism whose epigrams both traditions have found alarming and irresistible.
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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