Chapter 7
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 _Volksbücher_ 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. FRÜHLINGSGESELLEN, 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 FÄLLT, _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 FÄLLT, i.e., sinks away.
2. WIE BALD SICH'S RÜHRET, _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 Flügel aus_, -- XX -- X --.
RÜCKERT
Friedrich Rückert, 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 Rückert. 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 Düsseldorf, December 13, 1797, of Jewish parents. The Napoleonic Wars were among the chief impressions of his childhood. He saw Napoleon ride through Düsseldorf; he saw the tattered remains of the Grande Armée 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 ÜBEL 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 Böcklin.
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 schläfert_, 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-Hallermünde 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. FÜR UND FÜR, _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 _Maienglück_ in 29.
3. OB = _über_.
8. STRAßEN, old weak dative.
12. FRÜHLINGSKINDER, 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. DRÄNGE, 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 vergnügtes Tauschen_, _silent sweet passing from one state to another_.
5. VON HINNEN, _away_.
MÖRIKE
Eduard Mörike 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 Tübingen 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 Mörike was vicar in various villages of Württemberg, 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 Mörike 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. Mörike died June 4, 1875.
Mörike'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 Mörike 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 Böcklin. 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 Bläue_. The firmament is the yoke along which the fleeting hours glide; GLEICHGESCHWUNGEN, _equally arched_, i.e., perfectly circular.
80.--3. SCHLEIER, of mist.
5. HERBSTKRÄFTIG, full of autumnal vigor; GEDÄMPFT, 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 schön leuchtet der Morgenstern_.
83. Of the character of the _Feuerreiter_, a creation of Mörike, 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. MÜßEN, 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. Mörike 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 (_vergönnt_)--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 schön 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 Mörike's ideal.
1. WILLT = _willst_.
2. _A thing of joy or a thing of sorrow._
5-7. WOLLEST NICHT ÜBERSCHÜTTEN, _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