Chapter 6

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 _Erlkönig_ or _der König 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: _Héiligkèit--Zéit_. 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--schön_, _gerissen--Füßen_, _Lied--Gemüt_, _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 Märchen aus alten Zeiten, das kommt mir nicht aus bem Sinn. Die Luft ist kühl 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 Heidenröslein_, 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 Schönemann, 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 Türmers_, 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 FRÜHLINGSWETTER, _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 Zürich. Goethe had gone there to escape the unrest into which his love for Lili Schönemann 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 Röslein 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. MORGENSCHÖN, 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 _Selbstverständigkeit_, and in this one respect it may well be compared to Wordsworth's Lucy ("She dwelt among the untrodden ways").

1 and 2. FÜR 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. STÜRZT, _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), TÄTEN SINKEN = _sanken_. _Täten_ 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 SCHÖNER = _doppelt schön_.

22. DAS FEUCHTVERKLÄRTE BLAU, _The azure of the sky transfigured in the water_.

30. _Then he was doomed_. Compare the expression: "he is done for."

14. ERLKÖNIG is a corruption of _Elbkönig_, 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 Erlkönig, 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. FÜHREN DEN NÄCHTLICHEN 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 _Götter_ (and adopting the variant reading _sie_ [i.e., _Götter_] 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, Württemberg, 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 Württemberg 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 würden uns schämen, 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 Höheren_, 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. _BÜHNE_, here used for the tiers of seats for the spectators. Compare _Schaugerüste_, 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 _gerächt_.

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 Mühe, 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 Kräfte, worin allein seine immer wachsende Vollkommenheit bestehet. Der Besitz macht ruhig, träge, 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 spräche zu mir: wähle! Ich fiele ihm mit Demut in seine Linke, und sagte: Vater, gib! die reine Wahrheit ist ja doch nur für dich allein!"_

SAIS, city in ancient Egypt, seat of a famous shrine to Isis. ÄGYPTENLAND, _Ägypten_==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 Tübingen, 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 Tübingen. 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 Sängers 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_.