'An den Mond'

‘An den Mond’, a poem by Goethe which exists in two versions, one written between 1776 and 1778, the other and better known one probably between 1785 and 1789. Its conception belongs to the first years of Goethe's friendship with Charlotte von Stein. The poem was first published (in its second version) in Goethes Schriften, 1789. The first version became known on the publication of Goethe's letters to Frau von Stein in 1848. The first line of the poem, in which nature and love intertwine, runs ‘Füllest wieder Busch und Tal’.