The Mailied (English: May Song), also published as Mayfest in early editions, is a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, first published in the journal Iris in 1775. The exact date of its composition cannot be accurately established due to the lack of the original manuscript or author's statement regarding this work. It is generally assumed to have been written during the same time period as the „Sesenheimer Lieder“ (English: Sesenheim Songs). On this assumption, it is regarded as Goethe’s first significant poem (Erich Trunz, commentary in the Hamburger Ausgabe), the „culmination of Goethe’s poetry during his time in Sesenheim“ (German: „Höhepunkt von Goethes Lyrik während seiner Zeit in Sesenheim“) with Friederike Brion (Gerhard Sauder, commentary in the Münchener Ausgabe), and, within the „Sturm und Drang“ movement, as a formative work for the further development of lyric poetry. More recently, a later date of composition has been proposed (Christopher Meid in the Goethe-Jahrbuch 2019), since the poem may be an intertextual adaptation of Die schöne Landschaft, a poem by Friedrich August Clemens Werthes first published in 1772.

The poem belongs to the genres of nature and love poetry and is, at the same time, a poetological poem. It is divided into nine stanzas, each consisting of four lines.

The lyrical speaker admires the creative power of nature. In the opening stanzas, the love for nature is described in rich imagery. In the sixth stanza, it becomes clear that the poem is also about love for a young woman. Both the love of nature and the love for a young woman, as well as the image of the beloved herself, form the creative inspiration through which art is сreated – in this case, even the poem itself. The Mailied has been set to music numerous times, for example by Ludwig van Beethoven (Op. 52, Nr. 4) and Hans Pfitzner (Op. 26 Nr. 5).

English Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Text bei Wikisource

• Goethes Werke, Hamburger Ausgabe in 14 Bänden (hrsg. v. Erich Trunz), München 1974, Band 1
• Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Sämtliche Werke (hrsg. v. Karl Richter), Band 1.1 (Hrsg. Gerhard Sauder), München 1985
• Christopher Meid: "Mayfest" als bukolisches Gedicht. Zum Traditionsverhalten des jungen Goethe. In: Goethe-Jahrbuch 136 (2019), S. 127–141
• Emil Staiger: Goethe. Band 1. Zürich 1952, S. 55–61
• Hilde Spiel: Das Kosmische in der Liebe. In: Marcel Reich-Ranicki: Johann Wolfgang Goethe. Verweile doch, Frankfurt am Main 1997, S. 44 ff.
• Dorothea Hölscher-Lohmeyer: Die Entwicklung des Goetheschen Naturdenkens im Spiegel seiner Lyrik – am Beispiel der Gedichte „Mailied“ – „Selige Sehnsucht“ – „Eins und Alles“. In: Goethe-Jahrbuch 99 (1982), S. 11–31.

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Category:Works by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Category:Poetry Category:1771