That all the worthless may
Pass like a cloud away,
While shineth from afar,
Love's gem, a deathless star!
These ejaculations completely exhaust the emotional life of the self-destructive metaphysical erotic—he is conscious of nothing but his passion of love which eclipses all else. With him the second form of metaphysical love, the love-death, is reached. Goethe, in creating this character, must have had in his mind the unique Jacopone da Todi. For this rapturous love was the keynote of Jacopone's character, his whole life was one great ecstasy:
My heart was all to broken,
As prostrate I was lying,
With dear love's fiery token
Swift from the archer flying;
Wounded, with sweet pain soaken,