Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832 / Frankfurt am Main

The Stork's Vocation

THE stork who worms and frogs devours

That in our ponds reside,
Why should he dwell on high church-towers,

With which he's not allied?

Incessantly he chatters there,

And gives our ears no rest;
But neither old nor young can dare

To drive him from his nest.

I humbly ask it,--how can he

Give of his title proof,
Save by his happy tendency

To soil the church's roof?
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