Hinten der Groom mit wichtigen Mienen, An den Raedern Gebell.
In den Doerfern windstillen Lebens Genuege, 5 Auf den Feldern fleissige Spaten und Pfluege, Alles das von der Sonne beschienen
So hell, so hell.
* * * * *
138. SCHOENE JUNITAGE
Mitternacht, die Gaerten lauschen,
Fluesterwort und Liebeskuss,
Bis der letzte Klang verklungen,
Weil nun alles schlafen muss–
Flussueberwaerts singt eine Nachtigall. 5
Sonnengruener Rosengarten,
Sonnenweisse Stromesflut,
Sonnenstiller Morgenfriede,
Der auf Baum und Beeten ruht–
Flussueberwaerts singt eine Nachtigall. 10
Strassentreiben, fern, verworren,
Reicher Mann und Bettelkind,
Myrtenkraenze, Leichenzuege,
Tausendfaeltig Leben rinnt—
Flussueberwaerts singt eine Nachtigall. 15
Langsam graut der Abend nieder,
Milde wird die harte Welt,
Und das Herz macht seinen Frieden,
Und zum Kinde wird der Held—
Flussueberwaerts singt eine Nachtigall. 20
A WORD TO THE READER
Verse must be read aloud. Rhyme, rhythm, alliteration, assonance, vowel coloring, the effect of enjambement, to name only the more obvious phenomena, appeal solely to the ear. Looking at a page of verse is like looking at a page of music. Unless the symbols are translated into sound values, the effect is blank. A skilled musician is able to translate the printed notes to the inner sense, but even he will prefer to hear the music and will always consider this the final test. Thus it is also with verse: it must be read aloud. Lyric verse is best read in privacy or in a small congenial group. When the humdrum noise and the humdrum cares of the world have vanished, then the moment has come when one may steep one’s soul in lyric beauty. One never tires of a really great lyric: like a true friend, a longer acquaintance adds only new delight.
And why read lyric poetry at all? Some people ask that question, and for them the case may be hopeless. If the lyric sense is utterly lacking, then it is their sad lot to live in the desert of the practical world. Art is not for them: neither music nor poetry nor painting nor sculpture nor architecture; for something of the lyric impulse lives in all of these. But many ask that question who some day will see, and for them I must attempt a brief answer. All literature is an interpretation of life, and the better one understands life the better one understands literature, and vice versa. Lyric poetry is the most direct interpretation of life, because here the poet reveals his innermost self directly. We strive to enrich our intellectual power by reliving the thought of Plato and of Kant. Why not enrich our emotional life and our whole being by reliving the world of Goethe or Shelley? The poets have lived for us, and the pure essence of their life we can make our own in their lyric verse.
* * * * *
ELEMENTS OF VERSIFICATION
RHYTHM.– While in Greek and Latin it depends on quantity, i.e., length of the syllables, in German as in English it depends on stress, that is, accent. The smallest rhythmical unit is called a foot and corresponds to a measure in music with the exception that the accent need not be on the first syllable. A verse consists of two or more feet (verses with only a single foot are rare) and may end either with an accented syllable (masculine ending) or with an unaccented (feminine ending). Especially within longer verses there often occurs a slight rest or break, called caesura. Designating the accented syllable by — and the unaccented by X, the more common feet with their Graeco-Roman names may be represented thus:
Iambic, X —
Trochee, — X
Dactyl, — XX
Anapaest, XX –.
This terminology is, however, of little avail in the German _Volkslied_, that is the simple folksong, and in that large body of German verse which is patterned after it. Here the basic principle is the number of accented syllables. The number of unaccented syllables varies. A measure (i.e., a foot) may have either one or two unaccented syllables, in the real Volkslied often three. (A measure without an unaccented syllable, so common in older verse, is but rarely met with to-day; see 84, 7.) Goethe’s more popular ballads as _Erlkoenig_ or _der Koenig in Thule_ offer good examples of this freer technique. Above all, however, Heine made use of this principle, while Platen, whom later German verse tends to follow in this respect (e.g., Meyer and Liliencron), espoused the strict classic ideal.[1]
[1] Exceptions are only apparent, as in 68, 7. Platen followed the rules of Graeco-Roman prosody, where a long syllable could be substituted for two short syllables.
RHYME.–When two or more words correspond from their accented vowel on, they are said to rhyme: _Pferde–Erde_. The rhyming syllable must carry at least a secondary accent: _Heiligkeit–Zeit_. Rhymes of one syllable are called masculine, of two syllables feminine. According to their degree of perfection rhymes are classified as pure and impure. Thus _geboren–geschworen_, _bestellt–Welt_ are pure, _gesehn–schoen_, _gerissen–Fuessen_, _Lied–Gemuet_, _sprach–Gemach_, _Wiesen–fliessen_ are impure. Impure rhymes are not of necessity poor, but may be used to enhance the musical effects of a poem. Heine was a master in this respect. The modern school, however, tends to avoid impure rhymes.
Rhymes within a verse are called internal rhymes.
ALLITERATION–two or more accented syllables beginning with the same consonant or with a vowel: _Von weissen Wolken umwogt_, 59, 2–is used to enhance the rhythmic-melodic character of a poem, as is also assonance–the agreement of vowels in two or more accented syllables, 36. Often assonance is practically a form of impure rhyme, _Grunde–verschwunden_, 41, _Himmel–Schimmer_, 44.
STANZA–a union of two or more verses. In a stanza itself the individual verses may either stand apart or two or more verses may form larger units. Thus the structure of the various stanzas may be made to differentiate and the rhythmic-melodic character of the poem be thereby modified (44 and 56 and notes). Similarly, stanzas may form larger units (2). If the end of a verse breaks into a syntactic unit, we have what is called an enjambement. This tends to put a special stress on the last word. Notice for example the onomatopoetic effect in 13, 7 and 8:
Aus dem bewegten Wasser rauscht
Ein feuchtes Weib hervor.
REFRAIN.–This is a repetition of one or more verses, either exactly repeated or slightly modified, at the end of a stanza or less frequently at another fixed place (4, 10, 34). Aside from its rhythmic-melodic effect the refrain helps to center the attention on a certain idea or motif.
STANZA AND VERSE FORMS.–Only a few need any special discussion.
1. _Blank Verse_. This is the verse of Shakspere and was introduced into Germany from England. It is an unrhymed iambic verse of five feet (19).
2. _Freie Rhythmen_. An unrhymed verse that does not follow any fixed form; the rhythm may vary even within the verse. The number of accented syllables usually does not exceed four (15, 16 and 59).
3. _The Rhymed Couplet_ (_vierhebige Reimpaare_) was introduced from the _Volkslied_. The verse ending is always masculine. Best adapted to a rapidly progressing action, every stanza marks a forward step, portrays a new scene (28, 29, 74).
4. _The Sonnet_, an Italian verse form, is composed of fourteen iambic lines of five feet each. The rhyme for the first eight lines, called the octave, is always _abbaabba_; for the last six, called the sestette, the rhyme may be _cdcdcd_, _ccdccd_, or _cdecde_ (69 and 77).
5. _The Siziliane_, likewise Italian, consists of eight iambic lines of five feet each, the rhyme being _abababab_ (135 and 136).
6. _The Modified Nibelungen Stanza_, an adaptation of the stanza of the Nibelungenlied introduced by Uhland, is a stanza of four verses rhyming in couplets; each verse has six accented syllables with a fixed pause as indicated below in the scansion of the first two lines of 32:
X — X — X — X || X — X — X–
X — X — XX — X || X — X — X —
Each line is in reality composed of two verses and thus we have here the form so commonly used by Heine (48, 49, 50, 51, 52 and others). Each verse has in reality four measures, the last measure being taken up by a pause:
Es stand in al ten Zei ten | | ein Schloss so hoch und hehr. X — X — X — X * X — X — X — **
In music these pauses may be taken up in whole or in part by lengthening the preceding notes (to some extent this holds true in reading, adding to the effect of the enjambement). _Die Lorelei_ offers a good example:
[Musical notation in original for following lyric. Transcriber.]
Ich weiss nicht, was soll es bedeuten, dass ich so traurig bin; ein Maerchen aus alten Zeiten, das kommt mir nicht aus bem Sinn. Die Luft ist kuehl und es dunkelt, und ruhig fliesst der Rhein; der Gipfel des Berges funkelt im Abendsonnenschein.
* * * * *
NOTES
GOETHE
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the world’s greatest lyric genius, was born August 28, 1749, in Frankfurt am Main. In his being there were happily blended his mother’s joyous fancy and the sterner traits of his father. Thus a rich imagination, a wealth of feeling, and the power of poetic expression went hand in hand with an indomitable will. In the spring of 1770 the young poet went to Strassburg to complete his law course. There Herder happened to be, even then a famed critic and scholar, and he aroused in Goethe a love and understanding of what was really great and genuine in literature: especially Homer, the Bible, Shakspere, and the _Volkslied_ i.e., the simple folksong. In the fall of the year Goethe met Friederike Brion in the parsonage at Sesenheim, a village near Strassburg. Now Herder’s teaching bore fruit in an outburst of real song (1, 2 and 4). The influence of the _Volkslied_ is clearly discernible in the unaffected naturalness, spontaneity, and simplicity of these lyrics. Thus _das Heidenroeslein_, which symbolizes the tragic close of the sweet idyll of Sesenheim, is to all intents and purposes a _Volkslied_.
The following years, spent for the most part in Frankfurt, were the period of _Sturm und Drang_ (Storm and Stress) in the poet’s life and work. His love for Lili Schoenemann, a rich banker’s daughter and society belle of Frankfurt, only heightened this unrest (3). In the fall of 1775 the young duke Karl August called Goethe to Weimar. Under the influence of Frau von Stein, a woman of rare culture, Goethe developed to calm maturity. Compare the first _Wanderers Nachtlied_ (written February 1776), a passionate prayer for peace, and the; second (written September 1780), the embodiment of that peace attained. Even more important in this development is the fact that Goethe, in assuming his many official positions in the little dukedom, entered voluntarily a circle of everyday duties (7 and 8). Thus the heaven-storming Titan, as Goethe reveals himself in his _Prometheus_, learns to respect and revere the natural limitations of mortality (15 and especially 16).
As Goethe matured, his affinity for classic antiquity became more marked, and a consuming desire impelled him to spend two years in Italy (1786-1788). The rest of his years Goethe spent in Weimar, his life enriched above all else by his friendship with Schiller. In this second Weimar period Goethe reached the acme of his powers. Even his declining years, although marked by loneliness and bringing him a full measure of grief (his wife, Christiane Vulpius, whom he had met shortly after his return from Italy, died in 1816, followed in 1830 by his only son), exemplified that earnest striving so characteristic of Goethe. A serene optimism, a deep love of life, was his to the very last. To this _das Lied des Tuermers_, written May 1831, bears eloquent witness. A ripe mellowness seems to blend here with the joyous spirit of youth. Goethe died March 22, 1832.
1. A visit to Sesenheim is the experience that called forth this poem. (Compare Goethe’s first letter to Friederike, October 15, 1770) Notice how all nature is personified and assumes human attributes. In the opening stanzas impetuous haste is stirring, the first two lines have a marked rising rhythm. Notice the quieting effect of the metrical inversion at the beginning of 17, 18, and 19 and of the break in 25 after ach and how the whole poem ends with a note of deep joy.
15, 16. WELCHES, WELCHE = _what_.
21. ROSENFARBNES FRUEHLINGSWETTER, _the roseate hues of spring-time._
29. ERDEN, old dative singular.
2. Notice that the second and third stanzas are joined as also the last three. The exuberant fullness of joy creates its own form and overleaps the confines of a single stanza.
3. Written June 1775 in Switzerland on Lake Zuerich. Goethe had gone there to escape the unrest into which his love for Lili Schoenemann had thrown him. The poem opens with a shout of exultation, 1 and 2; note the inversion — XX — X — _Saug’ ich aus freier Welt_. The rising rhythm of the following lines clearly depicts the movement of rapid rowing. Stanza 2 changes to a falling rhythm; as pictures of the past rise up, the rowing ceases. Stanza 3 depicts a more quiet forward movement; notice the effect of the dactyls in the even lines.
15. TRINKEN, metaphorically for _envelop, cause to disappear._
4. The refrain, so common in the _Volkslied_ does not only enhance the melody of the poem, but centers the entire attention on das Roeslein and retards the quick dramatic movement of the narrative, which latter is heightened by the omission of the article and the frequent inversion of the verb.
2. HEIDEN, old dative.
3. MORGENSCHOEN, the rose has all the fresh pure beauty of the early morning.
18. WEH UND ACH, _cry of pain, piteous outcry._
5. For this and the following poem compare Longfellow’s translation.
6. EIN GLEICHES, i.e., another _Wanderers Nachtlied_. This poem has been justly called _die Krone aller Lyrik_, _the acme of all lyric poetry_, because of its simple, perfect beauty.
8. ERINNERUNG, _reminder_.
9. Written in 1813 in memory of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the day when the poet had first met Christiane Vulpius. Its never failing charm lies in its utter simplicity, its _Selbstverstaendigkeit_, and in this one respect it may well be compared to Wordsworth’s Lucy (“She dwelt among the untrodden ways”).
1 and 2. FUER SICH (i.e., _vor sich_) HINGEHEN, _to saunter along, to walk along without any special purpose._
10. Mignon, a fascinating character in Goethe’s novel Wilhelm Meister, a strange premature child, expresses in this song her longing for her Italian land. In succinct pictures there arise before us her native land, her ancestral home and the way thither. The very soul of this poem is longing, culminating with ever increasing intensity in the refrain. Note the vivid concreteness of the verbs and the noble simplicity of the adjectives; the vowels, especially in 2.
13. WOLKENSTEG, _bridge that hangs on clouds_ (Carlyle).
16. STUERZT, _plunges down_, i.e., descends precipitously.
11. The _Harfenspieler_ has, without knowing it, married his own sister. Mignon is the child of this union. In this song he pours forth his despair and the torments of his conscience.
12. Thule is a mythical land of the far North.
3. STERBEND modifies _Buhle_.
7. _his eyes overflowed with tears._
8. SO OFT, _as often as._
12. ZUGLEICH, i.e., with his other possessions.
15. AUF, translate _in_. Why _auf_?
21, 22. Note the descriptive effect of the enjambement together with the internal rhyme.
23. _His eyes closed_ (in death), TAETEN SINKEN = _sanken_. _Taeten_ is an older preterite indicative.
13. The poem embodies the lure of the water. This motif is clearly expressed in 1 and is repeated in 25. In 9, 13, 29 and 31 metrically the same motif recurs. Compare 9 and 29: the speech becomes song and the lure of the nymph’s song draws the fisherman down.
4. _cool to his very heart_.
6. _The flood swells up and divides_ (as the body emerges from it). Note effect of the inversion — XX — X –.
13. FISCHLEIN, dative. MIR IST = _I feel_.
16. ERST, _now for the first time_.
19. WELLENATMEND. The word pictures graphically the rise and fall of the sun’s image in the waves.
20. DOPPELT SCHOENER = _doppelt schoen_.
22. DAS FEUCHTVERKLAERTE BLAU, _The azure of the sky transfigured in the water_.
30. _Then he was doomed_. Compare the expression: “he is done for.”
14. ERLKOENIG is a corruption of _Elbkoenig_, i.e., the king of the elves. Notice the difference in the speeches of the three characters: the calm assuaging tone of the father, whose senses seem dead to the supernatural; the luring song of the Erlkoenig, that changes abruptly to an impetuous demand; the ever increasing terror of the child till its fear is imparted to the father. The child’s speech is driven relentlessly forward by terror; notice the effect of the inversion in 22 and 28: — XX –, etc.
19. FUEHREN DEN NAECHTLICHEN REIHN, _dance the nightly round_.
20. _and rock thee and dance thee and sing thee to sleep_.
28. _Erlking has done me grievous woe_.
15. Suggested by the Staubbach, a cascade near Lauterbrunnen in Switzerland (October 1779). The poem compares human life in its various aspects to a stream. Notice in this connection how the rhythm varies from stanza to stanza.
12. WOLKENWELLEN, _cloudlike waves_.
24. HIN, _along_.
26. WEIDEN, _let graze or feast_, i.e., mirror.
30. MISCHT VOM GRUND AUS, _stirs from the very bottom._
16. Willing surrender, contented submission to the will of the Highest is the keynote of this poem.
9. _childlike thrills of awe._
40, 41. IHRES DASEINS. _Ihres_ refers to _Geschlechter_. To make it refer to _Goetter_ (and adopting the variant reading _sie_ [i.e., _Goetter_] instead of _sich_) makes an impossible metaphor, since the picture of a chain with its links cannot describe the eternal and changeless life of the gods, but only human life, generation following generation as link on link in a chain. Compare 31, where Goethe has used _Wellen_ with the same purport.
17. Although a part of _Faust_, this poem is none the less a confession of Goethe himself. Over eighty years old, the poet surveys life as a watchman from his high tower, lets his gaze once more wander over the world, when evening comes, and lo, all is good.
11, 12. _And as all things have pleased me, I am pleased with myself_, i.e., the sum total of my life is good.
SCHILLER
Friedrich Schiller was born in Marbach, Wuerttemberg, November 10, 1759. His short life was one great heroic struggle. His first inclination was to study for the ministry, but the rigorous and arbitrary discipline of the Duke Karl Eugen, whose school the boy as the son of an officer had to enter, considered neither aptitude nor desire, and thus Schiller had to study medicine and become an army surgeon. That he might shape his own destiny he fled from Wuerttemberg in 1782. The following years, in which Schiller gradually gained the recognition he deserved, were a bitter battle against poverty; and when in 1789 he had been made professor of history in Jena, only two years passed before illness forced him to resign. At that moment generous friends came to his aid, and from now on Schiller could live for his ideals.
As he had mastered the field of history, he now for years put his entire energy into the study of philosophy to round out his _Weltanschauung_ (his view of life) and his personality. Even as he worked, he knew that his years were numbered, but his indomitable will forced the weak body to do its bidding, and the best of Schiller’s dramas, the greatest of his philosophical poems, were written in these years of illness. Thus Schiller proved himself the master of his fate, the captain of his soul. Only a few weeks before his death he wrote to Wilhelm von Humboldt, _”Am Ende sind wir doch beide Idealisten, und wuerden uns schaemen, uns nachsagen zu lassen, dass die Dinge uns formten und wir nicht die Dinge.”_ (“After all both of us are idealists and would be ashamed to have it reported of us that the things fashioned us and not we the things.”) There was in Schiller, as Goethe said, _ein Zug nach dem Hoeheren_, a trend toward higher things. Schiller died in Weimar, May 9, 1805.
As a poet Schiller is in many respects the exact counterpart of Goethe. The latter’s lyric verse is the direct result of his everyday experience; his real domain is the simple lyric, _das Lied_. Schiller, however, confessed that lyric poetry in the narrower sense was not his province, but his exile. Hardly ever did an everyday experience move him to song, and he is at his best in the realm of philosophic poetry, where he has no equal. This philosophic tendency predominates even in his ballads, which are often the embodiment of a philosophical or ethical idea. While they lack the subtle lyrical atmosphere of Goethe’s, they are distinguished by rhetorical vigor and dramatic life. Their very structure is dramatic, as an analysis of 18 and 19 will show.
18. Ibykus, a Greek lyric poet of the sixth century B.C., bom in Rhegium, a city in Southern Italy.
1. The Isthmian Games were celebrated every two years on the Isthmus of Corinth in honor of Poseidon (Neptune), god of the sea.
6. Apollo, the god of song, archery and the sun (hence also called Helios, 71).
10. _AKRORINTH_, the citadel of Corinth, situated on a mountain above the city.
11. The pine was sacred to Poseidon. A wreath of pine was the award of victory in the games (54).
23. _DER GASTLICHE._ Zeus, to whom hospitality was sacred.
61. _PRYTANE_, _m._–_en_, prytanis, the chief magistrate.
82. _BUEHNE_, here used for the tiers of seats for the spectators. Compare _Schaugerueste_, 95.
91. _KEKROPS’ STADT_==Athens. Kekrops, the legendary founder of the state of Athens. _AULIS_, a harbor in Boeotia.
92. _PHOKIS_, territory in Greece to the west of Boeotia.
103. _RIESENMAss_. Since the Greek actors wore buskins and a long mask, the gigantic stature of the chorus is in itself no indubitable proof of the supernatural origin of this chorus. Thus the spectators are unable to decide, whether they actually see the Eumenides or only a chorus impersonating them. This is the meaning of 145 and 146. This doubt yields to certainty as the action progresses (170 ff.).
117. _sense beguiling_, _heart deluding_.
118. _ERINNYEN_ or _Eumeniden_. _Eumenides_, are the avenging goddesses of Greek mythology, the Furies.
150. _weaves the dark entangled net of fate_.
173. _GEROCHEN_, common form is _geraecht_.
182. _DIE SZENE_==Greek _skaene_ [Greek: skaenae], _the stage_.
19. The problem of the limitation of human knowledge and of the human mind, already touched upon in Genesis 2, 17, had been brought into prominence in Schiller’s time by the philosopher Kant. He had defined the limitations of the human mind: we can have no real knowledge of things themselves, but can know only the impressions that things make on our senses; furthermore our knowledge is limited to the finite, we have no knowledge of the Infinite, the Absolute. Schiller, not satisfied with the mere fact, in this poem expresses the conviction that there must be an ethical reason for this necessity, a reason that is beyond our ken. Compare also the beautiful words of Lessing: _”Nicht die Wahrheit, in deren Besitz irgend ein Mensch ist, oder zu sein vermeinet, sondern die aufrichtige Muehe, die er angewandt hat, hinter die Wahrheit zu kommen, macht den Wert des Menschen. Denn nicht durch den Besitz, sondern durch die Nachforschung der Wahrheit erweitern sich seine Kraefte, worin allein seine immer wachsende Vollkommenheit bestehet. Der Besitz macht ruhig, traege, stolz._
“_Wenn Gott in seiner Rechten alle Wahrheit, und in seiner Linken den einzigen immer regen Trieb nach Wahrheit, obschon mit dem Zusatze, mich immer und ewig zu irren, verschlossen hielte, und spraeche zu mir: waehle! Ich fiele ihm mit Demut in seine Linke, und sagte: Vater, gib! die reine Wahrheit ist ja doch nur fuer dich allein!”_
SAIS, city in ancient Egypt, seat of a famous shrine to Isis. AEGYPTENLAND, _Aegypten_==Egypt.
6. HIEROPHANT, [Greek: hierophantaes] (_literally_, the interpreter of the holy), _hierophant_, a priest, the teacher of religious mysteries.
61. _a thrill of heat and cold surges through his frame._
64. IN SEINEM INNERN, _in his heart_ or _within him_.
65. DEN ALLHEILIGEN, _the most holy (God)_. _All_ here has an intensifying meaning.
81. WAR DAHIN, _was gone_.
UHLAND
Ludwig Uhland was born April 26, 1787, in Tuebingen, where his father and both his grandfathers had been connected with the University. Uhland took up the profession of law, but his heart’s desire led him to the study of the older German poetry and folklore, and from 1830 to 1832 he occupied the chair of German Literature in Tuebingen. He also took an active part in the political life of his time in the interest of liberal tendencies and a united Germany. He died in Tubingen, November 13, 1862. His poetry is for the most part a product of his earlier years. Reserved and retiring to a fault, Uhland in his lyrics but rarely gives us directly his own emotional life, preferring to let the shepherd, the soldier, the mountain lad speak. The type of the simple folksong predominates, and from the _VOLKSLIED_ Uhland introduced into modern verse the modified Nibelungen stanza and the rhymed couplet. In his ballads Uhland prefers older historical subjects, as in _Taillefer_, that rarest jewel among his ballads; or at least uses an historic setting, as in the more popular _Des Saengers Fluch_.
21.–6. _Mutterhaus_, i.e., source.
18. RUFE ZU, _call to them_.
22. Notice how the first line, giving the situation, is repeated at the close of the poem and thus frames the picture.
6. _Sweet thrills of awe, mysterious stirring_.
23.–12. EINMAL, _sometime_.
24.–7. SICH INS FELD MACHEN, to start out into the field. Compare _sich auf den Weg machen_, _to start out_.
25.–67. MIT JEDEM TAG, compare English, _with every passing day_.
27.–3. IN FREIER HAND, _with free_, i.e., _unsupported, hand_.
4. ERFAND = _fand_.
8. SOLL GEHOLFEN SEIN, _it shall be remedied_.
29.–1. ZOGEN … WOHL, render _did journey_.
2. BEI, _at the house of_; _bei einer Frau Wirtin_, _at the inn of mine hostess_.
3. HAT SIE, third person singular as formal direct address (obsolete).
13. DECKTE DEN SCHLEIER ZU, _covered her face with the veil_.
14. DAZU, _while doing this_.
17. HUB, archaic for _hob_.
18. AN, archaic for _auf_.
30.–2. NIT, dialectal for _nicht_.
5. IN GLEICHEM SCHRITT UND TRITT, _keeping step_.
6. KAM GEFLOGEN, _came flying_; _kommen_ is construed with the past participle.
8. Impersonal construction best rendered by the passive.
31. TAILLEFER, i.e., iron cutter. Duke William of Normandy defeated the English under Harold at Hastings in 1066.
6. SCHWINGT = _turns_. The water was pulled up by a windlass.
14. DABEI, _while doing it_.
16. KLINGEN MIT SCHILD UND SCHWERT, _make shield and sword resound_.
25. FUHR WOHL, _did journey_.
27. Told by the chronicles. To stumble was an ill omen.
29. ZUM STURME SCHRITT, _went to attack_.
35. SO LASST MICH DAS ENTGELTEN, etc., _let me receive my dues for that_, etc.
40. ROLAND, one of the famous paladins of Charlemagne; his deeds were much celebrated in song. HELD, usually weak.
43. VON, render _with_.
45. SPRENGT’ ER HINEIN, i.e., _in den Feind_. STOSS, _thrust_ (of the spear).
47. SCHLAG, blow (of the sword).
58. IN LIEB UND IN LEID, _in joy and in sorrow_.
32.–5. REICH AN, _rich in_.
7. BLICKEN used transitively.
10. GRAU VON HAAR. Compare _blue of eyes and fair of hair_.
35. BLITZEND, _like a flash of lightning_.
42. ALLER HARFEN PREIS, _the best of all harps_.
63. HELDENBUCH, a book telling of heroes and their deeds.
EICHENDORFF
Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff, the scion of an old aristocratic family, was born in his ancestral castle in Silesia, March 10, 1788, and died November 26, 1856. Three things especially have left an impression on his poetry: his deeply loved Silesian home with its castle-crowned wooded hills and its beautiful valleys and streams; a simple childlike piety; and an early acquaintance with the _Volksbuecher_ and the _Volkslied_. The only things in Eichendorff’s life that have a romantic glamor are his happy, carefree student days and his participation in the Wars of Liberation (1813-1815). When peace was declared, the poet entered the service of the Prussian state and proved himself a careful and trusted official. Thus, living a busy life, he could write that classic of romantic idleness: _Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts_, _The Autobiography of a Good-for-Nothing_.
Eichendorff’s lyric verse can be described best by Nietzsche’s definition of a _Lied_: “_Takt als Anfang, Reim als Ende, und als Seele stets Musik_.” Music is the very soul of his lyrics to an unusual degree. A melody of haunting sweetness dwells in his simple lines. It is as if the music of Robert Schumann had sought to clothe itself in words. Coupled with this, we meet a most delicate perception of nature and a remarkable ability to portray her various aspects and her ever varying moods. Romantic _Sehnsucht_ (yearning), romantic _Wanderlust_ and the romantic love of nature have found in Eichendorff their finest expression.
33.–10. VOR, _on account of, because of._
11. WAS, _why._
12. _with free throat and joyous breast._
16. AUFS BEST’, _in the best way._
34.–3. WOHL. _indeed._
13. BANNER, usually neuter.
16. The forest is the scene of many of the old legends.
21. _Always remain steadfast and true._ Compare: _Wir bleiben die Alten_, i.e., our feeling toward each other will not change, we shall remain true friends.
35. Besides its love of nature and its religious note, both apparent in the previous poems, notice especially the touch of symbolism; the poet stands in _Waldesschatten wie an des Lebens Rand_.
5, 6. SCHLAGEN HEREIN, _the tones of the bells come pealing into the shadow of the forest._
10. VON. _down from, on._
36. This poem describes, as the title indicates, the dawn of spring: how spring in a moonlight night imparts a mysterious stirring of new life to all nature. With its variously interwoven rhymes, both end and internal, its use of assonance and alliteration, to mention only the more obvious effects, the poem is a musical symphony.
8. WOLKENFRAU’N, clouds personified.
11. FRUEHLINGSGESELLEN, i.e. _Waldquellen_ as helpers of spring.
37. Might well be compared to the elfin dances of Moritz von Schwind, the romantic painter.
38.–2. EIN SCHUSS FAELLT, _a shot (of a gun) is heard_.
40.–5. ENTBRENNTE for _entbrannte_.
42. Compare with 38, as to the use of the human element.
1. DER NEBEL FAELLT, i.e., sinks away.
2. WIE BALD SICH’S RUEHRET, _how soon life will stir_.
43.–4. Note the onomatopoetic effect of the rhythm.
44. This poem is the quintessence of Eichendorff’s lyric verse. Note the construction of the stanzas. The first stanza is composed of two syntactic units: 1 and 2, 3 and 4; the second of four units; notice the effect of the two heavy syllables _sternklar_; the third stanza reverts in structure to the first. Notice the effect of the inversion in 10: _Weit ihre Fluegel aus_, — XX — X –.
RUECKERT
Friedrich Rueckert, born May 16, 1788, died January 31, 1866, represents the combination of poet and scholar in a more striking degree than even Uhland, but he lacks the latter’s rare critical ability regarding his own verse. Oriental languages were his special field, and a most astounding technical skill enabled him to reproduce in German the complex Oriental verse forms with their intricate rhyme schemes. Something of this technical skill is apparent in 45, the one well-nigh perfect poem of Rueckert. The third stanza is an adaptation from a children’s rhyme. This the poet uses as the main motif at regular intervals, slightly varying it in the sixth to express his own feelings directly, and closing the poem with it in the ninth. A similar parallelism is apparent in the odd lines of each stanza. The last line of each stanza must be read with three accents: _Was mein einst war_, X — — –.
45.–7. OB, I _wonder whether_.
14. UNBEWUSSTER WEISHEIT FROH, _joyous in unconscious wisdom_, i.e., full of wisdom and not aware of it.
16. SALOMO, _Solomon_, the wise king of the Hebrews. Oriental legends attributed to him magic and supernatural knowledge.
25. WOHL, concessive, _it is true_.
HEINE
Heinrich Heine was born in Duesseldorf, December 13, 1797, of Jewish parents. The Napoleonic Wars were among the chief impressions of his childhood. He saw Napoleon ride through Duesseldorf; he saw the tattered remains of the Grande Armee return from the disastrous Russian campaign; and although not without the patriotic fervor of the German youth, he could not but admire the genius of the great Corsican (46). At Hamburg the young Heine was to enter upon a commercial career under the guidance of his rich uncle, but failed. An unrequited love for his cousin Amalie Heine became for a number of years the subject of his song. His favorite, almost exclusive vehicle; of expression is the simple stanza of the _Volkslied_, which he uses with consummate skill for new effects. Heine’s attempts in law proved as futile as those in business; although he did pass his examination for the degree of _Doctor juris_, the study of poetry had been his chief endeavor in his university career. Finally he decided to make literature his profession. Disgruntled with things in general and more especially with Germany–he had been crossed in his love for Amalie’s younger sister Therese, the rich uncle not wanting a penniless poet for a son-in-law–Heine went to Paris in 1831, where he lived till his death (February 17, 1856), often reviling but always cherishing and loving Germany, the country of sweet romantic song. Compare his poem _In der Fremde_ (64).
46. The theme of the poem is the loyalty of the humble soldier to his chosen hero. Its tone is utterly realistic, its language and metaphors those of everyday prose. Notice the effects Heine achieves by varying the number of unaccented syllables, e.g., 13 and 33, X — X — X — X — and X — XX — XX — XX –.
2. WAREN GEFANGEN, _had been captives_.
6. VERLOREN GEHEN, _to be lost_.
10. WOHL, _indeed_; OB, _because of_.
11. MIR IST WEH, _I am sore at heart_; _mir wird weh_?
13. DAS LIED IST AUS, _the jig is up, all is over_.
18. ICH TRAGE, _I bear, I cherish_.
47–58. A rearrangement from two cycles, _Lyrisches Intermezzo_ and _Heimkehr_. The main theme is the poet’s unrequited love for his cousin Amalie Heine (49, Therese).
48. The Lorelei is the name of a high cliff overlooking the Rhine. Clemens Brentano invented the myth, and the theme became popular in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Heine gave it its final form, in which it has practically become a folksong. The first four lines give us the mood of the poet, the second four give the setting of the action. 9-22 describe the action. Notice the utter simplicity of 21 and 22, which characterizes also the short epilogue, 23 and 24. This simple way of ending a poem Heine has in common with the folksong.
4. _That does not leave my thought_.
18. Impersonal, best rendered by the passive.
50. Notice that this poem has the same tripartite structure as the preceding. (Heine’s decided preference for this structure is evinced by the great number of poems of three stanzas.)
3. GANGES, river in India.
9. This bit of nature description, although unconventional, does not lack truth. Goethe offers a similar example, when he speaks of _schalkhafte_ (roguish, waggish) _Veilchen_.
51. One of the finest of Heine’s nature poems.
52.–6. MORGENLAND, see Vocabulary.
53.–8. NEBELTANZ, _the dance of the mists_.
54. Notice the realism of tone, not a word that rises above the plane of everyday prose. A whole tragedy compressed into three stanzas.
6, 7. _The first man that happened to come her way_.
8. IST UEBEL DRAN, _is in a sad fix_.
55. Compare 42, where the _Stimmung_, the mood, of a bit of nature is expressed without any reference to any human element. In this poem of Heine the charm of the evening is embodied in the fair nymph. Compare 37. The same tendency is apparent in many of the paintings of Schwind and Boecklin.
56. Stanzas 1-3 are each divided into two equal parts. In the third stanza, however, the line of division is less marked; notice also the effect of the inversion in 12: _Taucht er ins Flutengrab_, — XX — X –. In the fourth stanza each line stands by itself.
57. Notice the effect of the rhyme combining the first and fourth lines of each stanza. The first two lines of each stanza have four accents, the last two, three. Notice how the metrical structure of the line is made subservient to the mood expressed; this is especially true of 3: _Es dunkelt schon, mich schlaefert_, X — X — || X — X.
59. An apotheosis of Christ, who is represented as the spirit of universal love permeating all things.
17. SONNENHERZ, _sun heart_, since the sun is his heart.
22 ff. These lines imitate clearly the pealing of church bells.
36. SCHAUERND IN, _thrilled with_.
60. Notice the dainty effect of the tone coloring, heightened by the skilful use of impure rhymes.
61. The charm of this poem, as of many of Heine’s, lies in its suggestive power. The course of events is only dimly sketched, the tragic end hardly more than alluded to. While the first two stanzas are composed of two equal parts each, the last is composed of four.
62.–2, 4. WOHL, translate: _They do_, etc.
63. Of Heine’s poems this was the favorite of Lenau. Absolute unity of form and content: ceaseless change in ceaseless monotony.
7. WO SIND SIE HIN? _Whither are they gone?_
64.–5. DAS, without any definite antecedent.
65. The inscription on Heine’s grave in Paris. Compare with it Robert Louis Stevenson’s Requiem.
5. WO = _irgendwo_, _somewhere_.
11. TOTENLAMPEN, lamps burned in the vaults in honor of the dead.
PLATEN
August Graf von Platen-Hallermuende was born in Ansbach, Bavaria, October 24, 1796, and died near Syracuse, Sicily, December 5, 1835. The son of a noble family, Platen is, barring his _Weltschmerz_ (_world weariness_, compare Lenau) and the fact that he spent a good part of his life in foreign lands, the exact opposite of Heine. While Heine affects a certain carelessness of rhyme and rhythm and diction, Platen observes a studied elegance. His verse form is faultless as if chiselled in marble, his rhymes the most careful and pure. His ballads have a stately majesty of rhythm that reflects the inherent nobility of the poet. On the whole, his stanzas are characterized by a full and sonorous ring, although effects of delicate grace are not wanting (67). Platen is one of the greatest masters of form in German literature and is unrivalled as a master of the sonnet.
66. ALARICH (_Alaric_), the great leader of the Goths, having conquered Rome, succumbed to a fever when 34 years old (410 A.D.), and was buried by his troops near Cosenza (Cosentia) in the river Busento. Notice the stately dignity of the long trochaic line without any marked caesural pause. Any attempt to introduce the latter spoils the majestic ring of the verse.
1. LISPELN, best rendered, _are lisped_, or _resound faintly_.
7. _vied with each other for places in the rows along the stream_.
67. The lily swaying to and fro in the water is perfectly pictured by the rhythm, especially by the recurring five-syllable rhymes.
68. The peculiar effect is largely due to the preponderance of rhymes on _a_ or _o_ which have proved an insurmountable obstacle for every translator. Even Longfellow failed. His rhymes of light, night, change the whole effect.
9. IN ACHT NEHMEN. _to watch_, in poetry is often construed with the genitive.
14. Refers to the harmony of the spheres.
18. _Deceptively remote distance._
20. AUFS NEUE, _anew_.
69. PINDAR, the greatest of the Greek lyric poets, died according to legend as here described. He is justly famous for his majestic odes, and Platen revered him as his master.
9. SCHAUSPIEL, here _theater_.
11. It was customary in Greece for an older man to cultivate the friendship of a youth, e.g., Socrates and Alcibiades.
12. In the Greek drama the action was interspersed with choral odes, which were sung to the accompaniment of flutes.
LENAU
Nikolaus Niembsch von Strehlenau, known as Nikolaus Lenau, the third in the group of the poets of _Weltschmerz_ (Lord Byron is the best example in England), was born in Southern Hungary August 13, 1802. The father, a gambler and libertine, died before the boy was five years old; the mother, a high strung, passionate woman, battled with poverty for the sake of her children, of whom Nikolaus was her idol. His first impression of nature was the silent solitude and vastness of the Hungarian plains, which probably helped to accentuate an inherent strain of melancholy. Led astray by a youthful errant passion, he is haunted by a feeling of guilt, of lost innocence, and Dame Melancholy becomes his faithful life companion. When later happiness in the guise of human love crosses his pathway, he does not dare stretch out his hand. Shuddering, he feels there is something “too fatally abnormal about him that he should affix that heavenly rose to his dark gloomy heart.” Living only for his art and ever eager to enrich it with new impressions, he goes to America. There Nature was virgin still, untouched by the hands of man. What a lure! Incidentally he hopes to be cured of his melancholy and to gain an easy competence by investing in government land. After a winter spent on the American frontier (1832-1833) he returns to Germany a sadder, if not a wiser man, and becomes a restless wanderer until in 1844 the fate that he always dreaded overtakes him: his spirit is enshrouded in insanity. Six years later, August 22, 1850, he dies in an asylum near Vienna.
Lenau’s poetry is for the most part an expression of intense melancholy, full of “sadness at the doubtful doom of humankind.” It abounds in subtle nature descriptions, often quite impressionistic in their effect (76 and especially 77). Sometimes the poet employs a homely realism (75). Lenau was a master of the violin, and his verse is full of striking rhythmical effects; on the whole he prefers the slower cadences so well suited to his nature.
70. An apostrophe to the night, which is addressed as _du dunkles Auge_.
5, 6. VON HINNEN NEHMEN, _to take away_.
8. FUER UND FUER, _forever and ever_.
71.–3. Describes vividly the effect of the pale moonlight on the green sedge.
72.–7. WAS for _etwas_.
10. WILL, _wills_.
73.–1 ff. In German, May is the incarnation of all spring-time beauty and bliss. Compare 2 and 110 and the word _Maienglueck_ in 29.
3. OB = _ueber_.
8. STRASSEN, old weak dative.
12. FRUEHLINGSKINDER, i.e., birds.
29 f. MITTEN IN … INNEN, _in the midst of_.
42. MAG, _may_.
44. ERDEN, see note on 8.
46. ‘S IST EWIG SCHADE, _it is too bad_, _it is a pity_.
56. DRAENGE, subjunctive of purpose.
59. OB, instead of _als ob_. Common with Lenau.
60. STIMMEN, instead of _einstimmen_; _in ein Lied einstimmen_ = _to join in a song_.
63. LAG, _lingered_.
74. The heavy, slow moving rhythm is in apt harmony with the scene portrayed.
12. ‘EINER UM DEN ANDEREN’, _one after another_, _in turn_.
75.–13. ‘DAS AUFGESCHLAGNE GEBET’, _the prayer to which the book was opened_.
76. This may be the direct description either of a Dutch landscape or of a painting. Holland, like most of the North Sea Plain, is one vast level expanse of country, through which the rivers and brooks move but sluggishly. Here and there a Dutch windmill looms up; like all other objects it seems to peer forth from a haze because of the moisture-laden atmosphere. Nowhere else does nature assume such a bewitchingly drowsy aspect in autumn as here.
10. OB, compare note to 73, 59. TRUTZE = trotze.
11. STROHKAPUZE, refers to the straw thatched roof.
77.–6. IN EINS FALLEN, _to coalesce_.
8. _And in sadness become oblivious of each other_.
9. HIN UND WIEDER, _back and forth_.
78. The last of Lenau’s _Waldlieder_. The morbid melancholy of the poet has softened, and death is to him _heimlich still vergnuegtes Tauschen_, _silent sweet passing from one state to another_.
5. VON HINNEN, _away_.
MOERIKE
Eduard Moerike was born in Ludwigsburg, September 8, 1804. Circumstances forced him into the study of theology, and so he passed through the schools preparatory to the famous Tuebingen School of Divinity, where he completed his studies. He proved but an indifferent student (his thorough knowledge of Greek and Latin was in good part the result of later studies), he preferred to live in a fairy world of his own creation. Nature, music, and poetry were his delight, and of all the poets Goethe was always his favorite. For eight years Moerike was vicar in various villages of Wuerttemberg, more than once tempted to give up the ministry, but finally realizing that there was no better place to live his poet dreams than the attic room of a Suabian parsonage.
In 1834 he became pastor in Cleversulzbach, a secluded little village, nestling among the Suabian hills. Here the poet, with his mother and sister, lived an idyllic existence, his most frequent visitor the Muse. Ill health forced him to resign in 1843, and Moerike once more became a wanderer. During these years love again crossed his path, and to be able to marry–his pension was too meager–he accepted (1851) a position at a girls’ seminary in Stuttgart, where he taught German Literature for one or two hours a week, a none too heavy and an altogether congenial task. Moerike died June 4, 1875.
Moerike’s poetry gives abundant proof of a rich creative imagination. Even his everyday speech was of an astounding concreteness, and thus the various aspects of Nature assume bodily shape. Spring becomes a youth, the symphony of spring the soft tone of a harp (81); the night–a fairy woman–leans against the rocky cliff listening to the azure of the sky (79). Although the idyllic predominates, deeper tragic notes are not wanting (84, 85) nor is the full note of exuberant joy (86). But early in life Moerike realized that any overflowing measure of joy or grief would prove destructive to his oversensitive nature, and the golden mean became inevitably his ideal (88). Never has he expressed that sweet serenity of soul, which he gained not without a bitter struggle, more beautifully than in the melodious lines: “_Auf eine Lampe_” (87).
79. In its allegorical personification the poem might be compared to a painting of Boecklin. Like Venus of yore, the night rises from the sea and at midnight sees the golden balance of time (the heavenly bodies) rest in equilibrium. The springs try to lull the night, their mother, to sleep with a song of the beauty of the day. She prefers the azure melody of the midnight sky, but the waters continue to sing, even in their sleep, of the day that has just passed. This contest the poet has also portrayed rhythmically: compare the measured trochaic movement of the first half of each stanza with the lighter and more rapid dactylic movement of the second half.
5. KECKER, since the noises of the day no longer interfere with their song.
12. In apposition with _des Himmels Blaeue_. The firmament is the yoke along which the fleeting hours glide; GLEICHGESCHWUNGEN, _equally arched_, i.e., perfectly circular.
80.–3. SCHLEIER, of mist.
5. HERBSTKRAEFTIG, full of autumnal vigor; GEDAEMPFT, because the mists and the haze have softened all sharpness of outline and color.
81.–1. BLAUES BAND, metaphorical for blue sky.
7. HARFENTON, the symphony of spring, the heard and unheard stirring of new life.
82. The stanza form is an adaptation of a famous Lutheran hymn: _Wie schoen leuchtet der Morgenstern_.
83. Of the character of the _Feuerreiter_, a creation of Moerike, only this much is clear: he fights fire and has often used sinfully (_freventlich_) holy means (_des heil’gen Kreuzes Span_) to charm fire. Finally, however, he becomes a victim of the infernal powers.
21. DER ROTE HAHN, the symbol of fire.
26. FEIND, Satan.
40. As the refrain in the preceding stanzas has depicted the tolling of the bell, so the sudden break here depicts the ceasing.
42. MUESSEN, old weak dative.
84. In its beautiful simplicity this song has become a folksong, Since it presents many metrical irregularities, the following scansion may be found useful. A dot is used to indicate pitch accent.[*]
[* Transcriber’s note: Here represented by ‘Y’.]
X — X — X — — XX — X —
XX — XX — X — XX — X
Y — X — X — X — X — X —
X — X — X X — X — X
Y — X — X — — XX — X —
X — XX — X — XX — X
X — X — — X — X — X —
X — X — X X — X — X
86. Moerike found the name _Rohtraut_ by chance in an old German lexicon. The full vowel coloring appealed to him and called forth this ballad.
5. TUT etc., dialectic periphrastic conjugation = _fischt und jagt_.
19. WUNNIGLICH (_wonniglich_). 22. VERGUNNT (_vergoennt_)–these archaic forms are in keeping with the tone of the ballad and the patriarchal life at King Ringang’s court.
87. Appropriately written in the stately Greek trimeter (iambic verse of six feet). Compare with this poem the closing lines of Keats’ _Ode to a Grecian Urn_:
Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all Ye know on earth and all ye need to know.
_Was aber schoen ist, selig scheint es in ihm selbst._ _But beauty seems a thing all blessed within itself._
6. SCHLINGT DEN RINGELREIHN, circle about in a round dance.
10. IHM, old reflexive instead of _sich_.
88. The confession of Moerike’s ideal.
1. WILLT = _willst_.
2. _A thing of joy or a thing of sorrow._
5-7. WOLLEST NICHT UEBERSCHUETTEN, _pray do not overwhelm with a flood of_.
89. Lines of three and of two accents alternate, so that the poem is really written in blank verse; its character is, however, entirely changed, since the last word of each line stands out because of the necessary rhythmical pause. Notice the change in the last two lines.
HEBBEL
Friedrich Hebbel, Germany’s greatest master of tragedy since the days of Schiller, was born March 18, 1813, in the little village of Wesselburen in Holstein. Thus his first impression of nature was the infinite expanse of the North Sea Plain. Bitterest poverty was his lot from childhood; poverty and loneliness put their harsh imprint on his youth and early manhood. Haunted by hunger, he battled for years to gain a mere living, often on the brink of despair. His only help was a small stipend from the king of Denmark, which enabled him to spend two years in Paris and Rome, and the meager pennies that his devoted friend Elise Lensing, a poor seamstress in Hamburg, sent him. His short stories, his dramas, although they brought him fame, were of little avail in this struggle that seemed all too hopeless. Then a sudden change for the better came. Stopping at Vienna on his return from Rome, he found himself in a small circle of ardent admirers. He met Christine Enghaus, at that time Germany’s greatest tragic actress, who became the most congenial interpreter of Hebbel’s heroines. The attraction was mutual and on May 26, 1846, Friedrich Hebbel and Christine Enghaus were married. Now followed years of calm maturity, the greatest period of Hebbel’s dramatic production. Hebbel died in Vienna December 13, 1863. His lyric poetry, for the most part the product of his earlier years, is marked above all by a tendency towards symbolism, these symbols usually of a rich sensuous beauty and often of a rare delicacy. A homely realism is, however, by no means lacking. The musical quality of his verse attracted the genius of Robert Schumann, who set the _Nachtlied_ to music.
90. In the spring of 1836 Hebbel went to Heidelberg. A child of the North Sea Plain, he came in contact here with a richer, softer beauty of a more Southern landscape, a beauty which seemed to set free his latent powers. A night in the month of May on the wooded summits near Heidelberg called forth this song. The giant magnitude of the starry heavens awakened in the poet to an overpowering degree the feeling of the greatness of cosmic life; he feels the insignificance of his own individual existence, he feels as if it were in danger of being extinguished by the vastness of the great All; but then sleep comes as a kindly nurse and draws her protecting circle about the meager flame of individual existence. Notice the internal rhymes in the first and second stanzas that picture cosmic life and its reflection in the individual, and the utterly different effect of the third stanza, that returns to the narrower sphere of individual life.
91.–3. SPIELT HEREIN, _comes playing into the room_.
6. GEFAELLT IHM GAR ZU SEHR, _it likes all too well_.
92.–10. It was customary for the neighbors to perform the last kindly offices for the dead.
16. WAS, _which_.
93.–1. DIE DU, _thou who_.
95.–6 ff. WIR STERBEN: because in this union, when even the last barrier separating the “I” from the “Thou” has fallen, the aim of life has been reached in utter harmony which overcomes the limitations of individual existence. Thus these two souls may return into the All, as expressed in the beautiful symbol of the last stanza.
11. ZERFLIESSEN IN EINS, _coalesce_.
97. Compare Keats’ _Ode to Autumn_.
98. Addressed to Christine Hebbel, the poet’s wife.
3, 4. IN FLAMMEN STEHEN, _to be aflame_. This passage could be rendered, _that stands as if aflame with morning light at the farthermost horizon_.
10. LAESST = _verlaesst_.
KELLER
Gottfried Keller, best known as the master of the _Novelle_, was born in Zuerich, July 19, 1819, as the son of a master turner. A love for the concrete world of reality induced him to take up painting. Keller was not without talent in this line, but achieving no signal success, he gave up painting for letters. To secure for himself a stable footing in the civic world, Keller, after a number of years spent in Germany, in 1861 assumed the office of a municipal secretary of his native city, where he died July 15, 1890. Early in life, Keller threw aside all conventional beliefs, and his religion henceforth was a deep love of and a joyous faith in all life. Although Keller was in many respects decidedly matter-of-fact, a calm objective observer with a strong leaning toward utilitarian ideals–he had all the homely virtues of his ancestry–he nevertheless delighted in a myth-creating fancy. Thus Keller is very much akin to his countryman Arnold Boecklin, whom the German world honors as its greatest modern painter.
99. One of the finest expressions extant of love for one’s native land. The various national anthems pale before its beauty.
3. OB = _obgleich_.
9. HELVETIA, _Switzerland_.
13. GUT UND HAB (usually _Hab und Gut_), _possessions_; render, _all that I have_.
15. OB, compare 3.
100. The grief and woe of Nature held by the fetters of winter personified by this nymph climbing the “_Seebaum_,” whose branches are held by the ice. A mythical creation such as Boecklin delighted in.
12. GLIED UM GLIED, _limb upon limb_, i.e., _each separate limb_.
14. HER UND HIN, _forth and back_.
16. The very sound of this line is a cry of pity.
101. Written 1879. Theodor Storm called it the best lyric poem since Goethe. Compare C. F. Meyer’s letter to Keller congratulating him on his seventieth birthday. Meyer praises Keller’s poetry because of its “_innere Heiterkeit_,” and continues: “_Auch meine ich, dass Ihr fester Glaube an die Guete des Daseins die hoechste Bedeutung Ihrer Schriften ist. Ihnen ist wahrhaftig nichts zu wuenschen als die Beharrung in Ihrem Wesen. Weil Sie die Erde lieben, wird die Erde Sie auch so lange als moeglich festhalten._”
STORM
Theodor Storm, like Friedrich Hebbel, is a child of the North Sea Plain; but while in Hebbel’s verse there is hardly any direct reference to his native landscape, Storm again and again sings its chaste beauty; and while Hebbel could find a home away from his native heath, Storm clung to it with a jealous love. He was born in Husum (_die graue Stadt am grauen Meer_) on the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein, September 14, 1817, of well-to-do parents. While still a student of law, he published a first volume of verse together with Tycho and Theodor Mommsen. His favorite poets were Eichendorff and Moerike, and the influence of the former is plainly discernible even in Storm’s later verse. Storm left his home in 1851 and did not return until 1864, after Schleswig-Holstein had become German. He died July 4, 1888.
Storm is the poet of the North Sea Plain: he discovered its peculiar beauty. While the tragic note predominates, joy and humor nevertheless abound, and at the beginning of his poems Storm himself significantly placed his _Oktoberlied_, written in the political gloom and uncertainty of the fall of 1848. While realizing fully its inherent tragic elements, Storm loved and glorified life and thirstily drank in its beauty to the very last. This is the keynote of Storm’s lyrics.
102.–21. DIE BLAUEN TAGE, _azure days_, i.e., _days blue as the heavens in June_.
103.–6. _my heart is filled with joyous fright_.
104.–2. STEIN, i.e., _millstone_.
8. PUK, _Puck_, an elfin spirit of mischief. Compare Shakspere, _Midsummer Night’s Dream_.
105. The poet’s tribute to his home city Husum, “_die graue Stadt am grauen Meer_.”
13. FUER UND FUER, _forever and ever_.
107. In memory of the poet’s sister.
8. RECHT GESCHWISTER, _true brother and sister_.
11 f. NOCH WEHT EIN KINDERFRIEDEN MICH AN, _still a breath of childhood peace comes to me_.
108.–18. PFINGSTGLOCKEN; _Pfingsten_, _Pentecost_, is celebrated as a summer festival. In Northern Germany house doors are wreathed with birch twigs, while young birch trees are placed upright on the wings of the numerous windmills.
109.–6. MIR IST, etc., _I feel (full of life) like_, etc.
110.–1. VIVAT, Latin, _long may he live_, render _hurrah!_
111.–8. _what otherwise would be honorable_.
112. Storm has used the same motif in _Immensee_.
113.–7. SCHLAG, i.e., _pulsation (beat) of pain_.
MEYER
Conrad Ferdinand Meyer was born October 12, 1825, in Zuerich, and is thus a fellow-townsman of Keller. Like Keller Meyer is a master of the _Novelle_, but in all other respects there is a most striking difference. Keller was a sturdy commoner and always retained a certain affinity with the soil; there is a wholesome vigor about him. Meyer is of patrician descent; His father, who died early, was a statesman and historian; his mother a highly gifted woman of fine culture. Thus the boy grew up in an atmosphere of refinement. Having finished the Gymnasium, he took up the study of law, but history and the humanities were of greater interest to him. Even in the child two traits were observed that later characterized the man and the poet: he had a most scrupulous regard for neatness and cleanliness, and he lived and experienced more deeply in memory than in the immediate present. Meyer found himself only late in life; for many years also, being practically bilingual, he wavered between French and German. The Franco-German War brought the final decision, and from now on his works appeared in rapid succession. He died in his home in Kilchberg above Zuerich, November 28, 1898.
Meyer’s lyric verse is almost entirely the product of his later years. It has none of the youthful exuberance of Goethe’s earlier lyrics; a note of quiet calm, a mellow maturity pervades all; both joy and sorrow live only in the memory. And still Meyer loved life’s exuberant fullness, and a more finely attuned ear hears through this calm the beat of a heart that felt joy and sorrow deeply. Everywhere there is apparent a love of nature interpreted with all the modern subtlety of feeling. Meyer was a Swiss and his landscape, is that of Switzerland, one might even say that of Zuerich. Nature hardly ever speaks in herself, but only in her human relationship; not the field alone, but the field and the sower (121), the field and the reaper (118); not the lake alone, but the lake and the solitary oarsman (124). The poet loves the work of human hands and especially its highest form, that of art. Thus a Roman fountain (119), a picture, a statue become the subject of his verse. Of all the arts he loved sculpture most, and in its chaste self-restraint his poetry is like marble. Give marble a voice and you have a poem of Conrad Ferdinand Meyer. His poetry is also akin to marble in its perfection of form that is faultless, because it is the living rhythmic embodiment of an idea, of an experience. Witness but the melody and the rhythm of _der roemische Brunnen_ or of the _Saeerspruch_. In English letters Walter Savage Landor is a kindred spirit and his _Finis_, except for a note of haughty pride, might well be the epitaph of the Swiss poet:
I strove with none, for none was worth my strife. Nature I loved and, next to Nature, Art: I warmed both hands before the fire of life; It sinks, and I am ready to depart.
114.–9-14. A series of “_Liederseelen_.” Every one of these lines contains the idea of one of Meyer’s poems; compare 116.
11. GEN … EMPOR, _up towards_.
115.–10. DUMPFEN RUDERS, a case of transferred epithet. The sound goes, of course, with _Schlagen_.
116.–8. FRAEGT, usually _fragt_.
11. DU TUST DIR’S SELBST ZU LEID, _You do it_ (i.e., _stay away_) _to your own grief_.
12. WAS FUER EIN, _what kind of a_.
119. The theme of Meyer’s lyrics often is a painting, a piece of sculpture, etc. Here a typical Roman fountain has found lasting embodiment.
2. DER MARMORSCHALE RUND, _the round hollow of the marble basin_.
120.–3. ZUM ERSTEN, _at first_.
121. The poem in its rhythm embodies the rhythm of the sower. Compare Millet’s painting _The Sower_.
122.–4. NICHT EINER, DER DARBE, _not one that may suffer want_.
123. The Dutch school of painting is famous for its realism and its truth to life. The effect of this poem is due in no small mean to contrast: “_das kleine zarte Bild_” of the first two lines described, 12 ff., and the “_Junker mit der Dirn, der vor Gesundheit fast die Wange birst_”; the quiet of death, the quiet grief of the master, and the boisterous fullness of life.
NACH, _according to, from_.
3. ES POCHT, _Somebody knocks_. HEREIN, _come in_.
5. VOR, _because of_.
6. VON, _with_.
10. ZUR STUNDE, _at once_.
16. NACH DER NATUR, _from life_.
126. It is necessary to bear in mind that in Switzerland dusk first settles in the valleys and then gradually creeps up to the villages situated on a higher level.
8. KILCHBERG, the poet’s home near Zuerich.
128.–3. GEMAHL, _n._ in poetry instead of _Gemahlin_.
4. MORGENSCHAUER, _the cool morning breezes_, the chill that falls just before sunrise.
12. SOMMERHOEHN, the higher meadows where the cattle can graze only in the summer months.
LILIENCRON
Detlev von Liliencron, a countryman of Hebbel and Storm, was born in Kiel, June 3, 1844. He loved a soldier’s life and served his country in two wars, 1866 and 1870-71, and thus saw life in its grim reality. Because of wounds and debts, he tells us, he left the army. An inborn love of adventure and action made him try his fortune in America, where his mother’s father had served under Washington. His aim was to enter the military service of one of the Central or South American states. Disappointed in his hopes, he returned to Germany and for a number of years was a government official. This task, however, proved too irksome for his restless spirit, and in spite of his continual financial embarrassments, he resigned to live as he pleased. He died in Hamburg, July 22, 1909.
In his younger days, Liliencron felt the throb and stir of life far too keenly to find leisure for literature. Not till 1884 did his first volume of verse appear, recollections of his soldier days. The volume contains graphic descriptions of the most concise brevity, single words taking the place of whole sentences (132).
He delineates war with all its horror, not however without a sad pathos (133). He is also a master at depicting the more joyous side of a soldier’s life, the carefree maneuvres of a regiment with its colors and music passing through a village (130). In his love of nature Liliencron is akin to Storm, and even surpasses the older poet in the impressionistic vividness of his descriptions.
130. The poem pictures a German village scene: soldiers with their music approach from the distance, march through and disappear.
3. BRICHT’S, _breaks forth_ or _bursts forth_.
6 ff. The attention is first focused on the deeper notes. A gradual rise in pitch is noticeable in the lines from instrument to instrument named.
24. LATERNENGLAS, of the street lanterns.
29. WILHEL(MINE), KATHARINE (TRINE), CHRI(STINE)
131.–9. SIRRT, an onomatopoetic word coined by the poet to imitate the sound of the scythe cutting through the grain.
10. ARBEITSFRIEDEN, _the quiet peace of daily labor_.
11. HEIMATWELT, _home world_. Compare _Alltagswelt_, _work-a-day world_.
132.–4. _march and flood of victory_.
11 f. DURCH DIE LUEFTE BRAUST, etc., _with horrible whir of wings a flight of vultures passes through the air_.
133. Famous battle in the Seven Years War, in which Frederick the Great was defeated with enormous losses by the Austrians.
2. SOMMERHALM, lit. summerstalk, i.e., _growing grain_.
4. IST AUS, _is over_.
9. _he had to go_.
16. BEVERN, a small town in Brunswick.
22. HINEIN, into the book.
134.–4. WINZERVOLK, collective sing. Best rendered as plural of _Winzer_.
136. A lullaby for the poet’s son _Wulff_ (_Wolf_).
3. MONDESKAHN, i.e., crescent moon-shaped like a boat. Render the line, _slowly the crescent moon floats like a boat_.
137.–5. _The content of life not stirred by a breeze_.
138.–6 ff. SONNENGRUEN … WEISS … STILL. The peculiar effect of sunlight on colors and on quiet is depicted by these compounds.
14. -FAELTIG, _-fold_.
16. _slowly the dusk of evening lowers_.
VOCABULARY
As this book presupposes a knowledge of elementary grammar, pronouns, numerals, the common prepositions, and modal and auxiliary verbs are not given. Of strong verbs only the vowel change, including the quantity when different from the infinitive, is indicated, unless the verb shows further irregularities. Intransitive verbs that take _sein_ contrary to rule are marked with ‘s’. The prefix of separable verbs is followed by -. Of nouns only the plural is given, unless they belong to the so-called mixed declension. Compound words whose meaning is readily discernible from the component parts, are not included.
[Transcriber’s note: In the original, there are no commas between the German word (printed in bold type) and its English translation in simple definitions. Bold type is usually rendered as ALL CAPS in PG e-texts, but since the meaning of German words can depend on their capitalization (e.g. ‘arm’ and ‘Arm’ mean different things) I have added commas instead to make the vocabulary more easily understandable. Short vowels are marked with [s], long vowels with [l]. ‘-“‘ is my rendering for a change of a vowel to an umlaut in plural form.]
A
Abend, _m._ -e evening
Abendrot, _n._ evening glow
abends, _adv._ in the evening
Abendschein, _m._ evening light _or_ glow
ab-fallen, ie, a; ae, _intr._ fall off
Abgrund, _m._ -“e abyss
ab-kehren, _refl._ turn away
ab-leiten, _tr._ lead aside
ab-messen, a[l], e; i, _tr._ measure off
ab-nehmen, a, omm; imm, _tr._ take off
ab-reisen, _intr._ leave on a journey
Abschied, _m._ departure, farewell
ab-schmeicheln, _tr._ obtain by flattery
ab-streifen, _tr._ slip off
ab-zaehlen, _tr._ count off
ach, alas, ah
achten, _tr._ heed, care for (_poet. with gen._)
acht-geben, a, e; i, _intr._ give heed
aechzen, _intr._ groan
Ade, _n._ farewell
Ader, _f._ -n vein, blood vessel
ahnen, _tr. and intr._ divine, have a foreboding of
ahnungsvoll, full of sweet foreboding; ominous
Aehre, _f._ -n ear of grain
Aehrenfeld, _n._ -er field of ripening grain
All, _n._ the universe; entirety, unison
allda, there
allzu, _adv._ (_in compounds_) much too, all too
Alpe, _f._ -n the Alps
alt, old
Alter, _n._ — age
Altersschwaeche, _f._ senility, weakness of old age
Amme, _f._ -n nurse
Amselschlag, _m._ song of the Amsel (_kind of blackbird_)
an-beten, _tr._ worship
an-blicken, _tr._ look at
an-brechen, a[l], o; i, _intr._ dawn, break
andaechtig, devout
an-fangen, i, a; ae, _tr._ begin
an-fassen, _tr._ catch hold of, seize
an-gehen, ging, gegangen _intr._ be possible
Angel, _m._, f. -s, -n fishhook
Angesicht, _n._ -er face, countenance
Angst, _f._ -“e fear, anguish
aengsten, aengstigen, _tr._ cause fear, frighten; _refl_. be afraid
an-halten, ie, a; ae, _tr._ stop; _intr._ last
an-klagen, _tr._ accuse
an-klingen, a, u, _intr._ begin sounding
an-legen, _tr._ put on, don
an-rufen, ie, u, _tr._ implore, call upon
an-schauen, _tr._ look at, gaze at
an-sehen, a, e; ie, _tr._ look at
an-stimmen, _tr._ strike up _or_ start (_a song_)
an-stossen, ie, o; oe, _tr._ strike, knock against; clink glasses
Antlitz, _n._ -e face, countenance
Antwort, _f._ -en answer
an-vertrauen, _tr._ intrust
an-wehen, _tr._ blow _or_ breathe upon
an-wenden, _reg_. _or_ wandte, gewandt, _tr._ use, employ
Apfel, _m._ -” apple
Arbeit, _f._ -en work, labor
Aerger, _m._ vexation, anger
arm, poor
Arm, _m._ -e arm
Art, _f._ -en kind, type
Arzt, _m._ -“e physician
Asche, _f._ -n ashes
Asien, Asia
Ast, _m._ -“e branch
Atem, _m._ respiration, breath
atemlos, breathless
Atemzug, _m._ -“e breath, respiration
Aether, _m._ ether (_i.e._, the blue heavens)
atmen, _intr. and tr._ breathe
aufbauen, _tr._ build up, erect
aufdecken, _tr._ uncover, lay bare; raise, lift
aufdonnern, _tr._ dress ostentatiously
Aufenthalt, _m._ -e abode
auferziehen, erzog, erzogen, _tr._ bring up, rear
auffangen, i, a; ae, _tr._ catch, capture, receive
auffinden, a, u, _tr._ find, discover
aufhangen, i, a, _tr._ suspend, hang up
aufheben, o, o, _tr._ pick up, raise
auffassen, _tr._ snatch up; _refl._ rise quickly
aufrecht, upright, erect
aufreichen, _intr._ reach upward
aufrichtig, honest
aufschlagen, u, a; ae, _tr._ open (_a book_)
aufschweben, _intr._ soar up
aufspringen, a, u, _intr._ spring up, jump up
aufstehen, stand, gestanden, _intr._ arise, get up
aufsteigen, ie, ie, _intr._ rise upward, ascend
auftauchen, _intr._ rise up. emerge from (_the water_)
auftuermen, _tr._ pile up; aufgetuermt towering
aufwaerts, upward
Auge, _n._ -s, -n eye
aus-blicken, _intr._ look out
aus-brennen, brannte, gebrannt, _intr._ cease burning _or_ glowing, burn out
aus-graben, u, a; ae, _tr._ dig out
aus-klingen, a, u, _intr._ cease sounding
aus-loeschen, o, o; i, _intr._ be extinguished, go out
aus-machen, _tr._ settle
aus-rufen, ie, u, _tr._ call out, cry out
aus-ruhen, _intr._ rest; _ausgeruht haben_ be rested
aus-schauen, _intr._ look out
aus-singen, a, u, _intr._ cease _or_ finish singing
aus-spannen, _tr._ stretch out, spread
aus-steigen, ie, ie, _intr._ get out, disembark
aus-strecken, _tr._ stretch out, prostrate
aus-ziehen, zog, gezogen, _tr._ undress; take off, pull off
B
Bach, _m._ -“e brook
baden, _tr. and intr. (refl.)_ bathe
Bahn, _f._ -en path, track
bald, soon; — … — now … now
Band, _m._ -“e volume
Band, _n._ -“er ribbon
Band, _n._ -e bond, fetter
bang, fearful, afraid
bangen, _intr._ yearn
Bank, _f._ -“e bench
bannen, _tr._ charm, drive away
Banner, _n._ — banner
Barke, _f._ -n barque