As can be guessed from the title, this book is a collection of poems written by Friedrich Schiller. More than a dozen works are featured, including the following: ' Reproach. To Laura', 'The Simple Peasant', 'Actaeon', 'Man's Dignity', and 'The Messiah'. Here's an excerpt from 'Actaeon': "Thy wife is destined to deceive thee! / She'll seek another's arms and leave thee / And horns upon thy head will shortly sprout! / How dreadful that when bathing thou shouldst see me."

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, physician, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788-1805), Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with the already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. They frequently discussed issues concerning aesthetics, and Schiller encouraged Goethe to finish works he left as sketches. This relationship and these discussions led to a period now referred to as Weimar Classicism. They also worked together on Xenien, a collection of short satirical poems in which both Schiller and Goethe challenge opponents to their philosophical vision.