Goethe designed his collections of poems as lyrical reading books, guiding the reader from poem to poem and involving them in a 'sociable' game of conversation. This volume presents Goethe's poetry edition 'final hand' for the first time in the clear format that he actually intended. Furthermore, the volume includes poems that Goethe himself did not publish from the period 1800-1832: the numerous poems addressed to individuals, the partly biting, partly humorous verses in which he expressed his frustration with envious contemporaries, and the almost legendary erotica from the 'Walpurgis Night sack'. Together with the poems from 1756 to 1799, the edition encompasses the complete lyrical works of the poet, with the exception of the West-Eastern Divan in all its versions, arranged in chronological order of the first prints as well as according to Goethe's own collections.