ON bridges small and bridges great <br />Stands Nepomucks in ev'ry state, <br />Of bronze, wood, painted, or of stone, <br />Some small as dolls, some giants grown; <br />Each passer must worship before Nepomuck, <br />Who to die on a bridge chanced to have the ill luck, <br />When once a man with head and ears <br />A saint in people's eyes appears, <br />Or has been sentenced piteously <br />Beneath the hangman's hand to die, <br />He's as a noted person prized, <br />In portrait is immortalized. <br />Engravings, woodcuts, are supplied, <br />And through the world spread far and wide. <br />Upon them all is seen his name, <br />And ev'ry one admits his claim; <br />Even the image of the Lord <br />Is not with greater zeal ador'd. <br />Strange fancy of the human race! <br />Half sinner frail, half child of grace <br />We see HERR WERTHER of the story <br />In all the pomp of woodcut glory. <br />His worth is first made duly known, <br />By having his sad features shown <br />At ev'ry fair the country round; <br />In ev'ry alehouse too they're found. <br />His stick is pointed by each dunce <br />"The ball would reach his brain at once!" <br />And each says, o'er his beer and bread: <br />"Thank Heav'n that 'tis not we are dead!"<br /><br />Johann Wolfgang von Goethe<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/celebrity/
