The Marienbad Elegy is a poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist, biologist, theoretical physicist, and polymath. He is considered the supreme genius of modern German literature. His works span the fields of poetry, drama, prose, philosophy, and science. His Faust has been called the greatest long...

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This poem, considered one of Goethe's finest and most personal, reflects the devastating sadness the poet felt when Baroness

Baroness

Baroness is the female equivalent of the nobility title Baron.Baroness or The Baroness may also refer to:* Baroness , a metal band from Savannah, Georgia* Baroness , a fictional villain in the G.I...

 Ulrike von Levetzow

Ulrike von Levetzow

Ulrike von Levetzow, known as Ulrike Levetzow, Baroness von Levetzow was a friend of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. She met him at Marienbad and Karlsbad in 1822 and 1823, when she was 18 and he was 73...

 declined his proposal (Goethe did not propose to her personally, but via a friend, Carl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach

Carl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach

Karl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach was a duke of Saxe-Weimar and of Saxe-Eisenach from 1758, duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach from its creation in 1809, and grand duke from 1815 until his death...

). He started writing the poem on 5 September 1823 in a coach which carried him from Cheb

Cheb

Cheb is a city in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic, with about 33,000 inhabitants. It is situated on the river Ohře , at the foot of one of the spurs of the Smrčiny and near the border with Germany...

 to Weimar

Weimar

Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...

 and by his arrival on 12 September, it was finished. He showed it only to his closest friends.
Goethe never returned to Bohemia

Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....

again. He died in Weimar in 1832.