It will already have sufficiently appeared from what I have pointed
out in relation to the general character, as also the more detailed
features discussed with reference to the poet, the lyrical composition
and the several types of the art that to a singular degree in this
province of poetry a concrete treatment is only possible which accepts
the historical narrative as a constituent feature. The universal, which
can be set forth in its independence, does not merely remain restricted
in its compass, but is also abstract in its valid worth. And this is
so because in no other art to the like extent does the particularity
of the time, condition, and nationality, no less than the specific
idiosyncracy of individual genius, supply the determinating factor of
the content and form of the artistic product. But in proportion as the
strength of the demand forces itself on our attention that such an
historical exposition should be avoided, I feel myself obliged, in the
interests of the very variety of material comprised in the embrace of
lyric composition, to limit myself exclusively to a very partial survey
of all that I am acquainted of in this particular class of work, and in
which my lively interest could have been extended.
As the basis of our general classification of the varied national and
more personal lyric compositions, as in the case of epic poetry, we
cannot do better than follow the order of those radical types under
which artistic creation generally is unfolded, and which we now know as
symbolic, classic, and romantic art. As the main division, therefore,
of our present subject-matter, we may, in other words, adopt a similar
sequence from Oriental compositions to the Lyric of the Greeks and
Romans, and then from this to the Slavonic, Romance, and German peoples.
(_a_) Taking, then, the Oriental lyric first, we may observe that it
differs essentially from the lyrical composition of the West through
its inability to attach to it the independent personality and free
spirit of the poet, or that unity which characterizes every content
of romantic art, its essential infinity, reflecting, in fact, the
potential depth of the romantic soul. Such a distinction is only in
keeping with the universal principle of the East. The individual
conscious life is here, referably to its content, directly absorbed
in the detail of external fact, expressing itself under the condition
and specific relations of this inseparable unity. And, from a further
point of view, it asserts itself, without being able to secure a
firm ground of stability in itself, as opposed to what it conceives
to be of potency and substance in Nature and the conditions of human
existence, which it wrestles to reach whether through emotion or
imagination, at one time situated towards it rather in the relation
of pure opposition, at another with more freedom, but in either case
with ultimate failure. What we find here, therefore, if we confine
our attention to _form_, is not so much the poetic expression of
independent ideas over objects or their connections, as it is the bare
mirror of this unreflecting absorption,[17] wherein the individual
consciousness does not disclose itself in its own self-concentration
as free personality,[18] but rather in its self-annulment[19] before
the external object or condition. Thus regarded, the Oriental lyric
frequently, particularly in its contrast to the romantic, assumes a
more objective tone. Here we shall often enough find that the poet does
not so much express facts and conditions as they affect him, but rather
as they are in themselves, a disclosure which frequently bestows on
them an independent soul of vitality of their own. For illustration we
may take that exclamation of Hafis:
"Come, O come! The nightingale passeth from the soul of Hafis once
again over the scent of the roses of delight."
Regarded in another light, the tendency of this lyrical poetry, by
freeing the poet from the limitations of his private individuality,
is to replace this with a kind of primitive expansion of soul, which,
however, very easily loses itself in mere boundlessness, or is merged
in a deliberate effort to express that which it accepts as object but
cannot fully penetrate, because this content is itself the formless
substance. For this reason, speaking generally, the lyric of the East,
more especially among the Hebrews, Arabs, and Persians, possesses the
character of hymns of exaltation. With spendthrift prodigality all
greatness, might, and glory are lavished upon the creature, in order
to make all such transitory splendour vanish before the unspeakable
majesty of God; or, at least, it never is tired of stringing together
in some precious chain everything that is lovable or fair, in order to
present the same as a thankoffering to the object, be it Sultan, the
beloved, or the wine-shop, which the poet has set himself above all
things to celebrate.
In conclusion, if we look more closely at form of expression in this
type of poetry, we shall find that it is mainly the _metaphor_, the
_image_, and the _simile_ which are favoured. For, in the first
place, on account of the fact that he is not himself wholly free to
express his own personal life, the poet can only disclose himself in
something else, something external to himself, with the aid of life
that can compare with himself. And also we may observe that what is
here universal and substantive remains abstract; that is to say, it is
unable to merge itself in the definite form of a free individuality, so
that now, even on its own account, it is only in comparisons with the
varied phenomena of the world that it is able to envisage itself; and
we may add that both these cases, in the last instance, only possess
the worth of being able to assist some comparable approach to that One
which alone possesses significance, and is worthy of honour and praise.
These metaphors, images, and similes, however, in which the individual
soul, as it asserts itself, is exclusively identified almost to the
point of visibility, are not the actual feeling and spiritual state
itself, but rather a mode of expression which is wholly personal and
of the poet's composition. What, therefore, the lyrical artist here
loses in the concreteness of his spiritual freedom, this we find is
replaced by the freedom of his expression, which moves forward through
all the most manifold phases; that is, from the naïve simplicity of
its images and similes to every conceivable audacity and the acutest
ingenuity of novel and surprising combinations. As regards particular
nations in which we find this Oriental type of lyric represented, we
may mention, first, the Chinese; secondly, the Hindoos; thirdly, and
to a pre-eminent degree, the Hebrews, Arabs, and Persians. I cannot,
however, enter into any closer description of these.
(_b_) In the case of the second principal division of our present
poetic type, that is in the Lyric of the Greeks and Romans, it is the
principle of _classic_ individuality which, above all, distinguishes
its character. In accordance with this principle, the artistic
consciousness, which seeks for lyrical expression, neither loses itself
in the facts of the natural world, nor exalts itself over itself to
the height of that Sublime outcry to all creation: "Let all that hath
breath praise the Lord!" Nor is it absorbed, after divesting itself
joyfully from all the bonds of finite existence, in that One Being in
which all live and move. Rather the poet here is freely merged in the
Universal, regarded as the very substance of his own spirit; and in
this personal union within himself attains his self-conscious poetic
activity.
And just as the Lyric of the Greeks and Romans is distinct from that
of the _Orientals_, so too, from another point of view, it differs
from the _romantic._ In other words, instead of unveiling its depths
in the intimacy of particular moods and states of feeling, it rather
elaborates, to the point of the most explicit definition, this inward
life of its individual passion and meditation. And by doing so it even
retains, even as the expression of this inward spirit, so far as this
is permitted to the Lyric, the plastic type of classic art. All that
it communicates, in short, of the views and maxims of life and wisdom,
despite all the penetration of its general principle, nevertheless
does not dispense with the free individuality of independent thought
and conception. It expresses itself less in the wealth of image and
metaphor, than directly and categorically. At the same time, also, the
personal feeling, at one time in more general relations, at another
in the form of vision itself, is on its own account objective. In the
same mode of individuality the particular types may be classified
as distinct from each other in conception, expression, phraseology,
and verse-measure, until they reach the culminating point of their
independent elaboration. And as we have found it true of the soul
itself and its ideas, so, too, the external presentment is of more
plastic type. In other words, from a musical point or view, it
emphasizes less the ideal soul-melody of emotion than the sensuous
verbal quantity in the rhythmical measure of its movement, to which it
may further attach the complex mazes of the dance.
(_α_) With the richest originality this artistic form of Greek lyric
poetry is perfected. In the first instance we may trace it in those
_hymns_ possessing a content as yet more akin to the epic mode, which
do not so much express in their epic metre a personal enthusiasm as
they set before us a plastic image of gods in deliberately objective
outlines. The next step, so far as metre is concerned, we mark in the
_elegiac_ syllabic measure, which associates the pentameter with the
hexameter, which, in the regular recurrence of its ending after the
hexameter, and with its two equally divided sections, opens the way
to the complete singularity of the verse strophe. The elegy is also
throughout in its tone of the lyric type. This is so in the case of
the political elegy no less than the erotic, although, particularly
as gnomic elegy, it still closely approaches the epic insistence upon
and expression of the substantive as such, and for this reason almost
exclusively belongs to the Ionians, with whom the objective point
of view was generally predominant. In respect also to its musical
side, it is primarily the aspect of rhythm which is here successfully
worked out. And, on parallel lines with it, we may observe, thirdly,
the development of the _Iambic_ poem in a novel verse-measure. This,
however, is, by reason of the keenness of its invectives, from the
first of a more subjective or personal tendency. The genuine mode of
lyrical reflection and passion, however, receives for the first time
its full development in the so-called _Melisian_[20] lyric. The metres
are more varied, more capable of change; the strophes are more rich;
the suggestions of musical accompaniment are more complete in virtue
of the nature of the accepted modulation. Each poet creates a syllabic
measure which corresponds with his or her lyrical nature. Thus Sappho
adapts one to a type of composition which is sensuous, inspired with
the glow of passion and expressed with an effect which works up to a
supreme crisis. Alcaeus moulds one in harmony with his masculine and
bolder odes. To an exceptional degree, too, the Scoliasts supply many
indications of the finer nuances of diction and metre by reason of the
variety of their content and melodic utterance.
Last of all, the lyric of the _chorus_ is richest of all in the
wealth of what it unfolds, and not merely so in what concerns idea
and thought, boldness of transition and connection or the like, but
also relatively to its external presentment. The choral song may be
interchanged for the single voice, and the ideal movement is not
merely satisfied with the bare rhythm of speech and the modulations
of music, but summons as its associate the plastic pose and movement
of the dance. The ideal aspect of the Lyric is consequently balanced
to perfection with the sensuous character of its delivery. The
subject-matter of this type of inspired verse is the most substantive
and weighty. Such poems celebrate the power and glory of the gods,
or that of victors in the games. Greeks, who not unfrequently were
divided in their political relations, found in them the positive vision
of their national unity. And, partly for this reason, aspects of
their ideal construction are not wanting which approach the objective
standpoint of the Epic. Pindar, for example, who reaches the highest
point of attainment in this type of composition, moves with ease, as I
have already pointed out, from the external motives of his compositions
to profound observations upon the general nature of ethical principle
and divine matters, or it may be upon heroes, heroic exploit, the
foundations of States, and the like. His creative gift possesses, in
short, the plastic sense of realization quite as much as the individual
sweep of imaginative energy. On this very account, however, it is not
so much the facts which follow their independent course in the epic
manner, as the personal enthusiasm, carried away by its object so
completely that the latter appears to be the burden and product of the
soul.
Later lyric verse of the Alexandrines is less an independent
development and more a mere scholastic imitation and affectation of
elegance and correctness of expression, until finally it dissipates
itself in trifling graces and pleasantries, or seeks to bind up afresh
flowers of art and life already to hand in a garland of tender feeling
and conceit, and the witty experiment of eulogy or satire.
(_β_) Among the Romans lyric poetry finds a soil no doubt fashioned
for it in various ways, but of less original productive qualities. The
period of its splendour is limited mainly to the age of Augustus, in
which it is cultivated as the elaborate expression and relaxation of
cultured society; or indeed, to a considerable degree, it is rather
an affair of the clever translator or copyist, and the fruit of taste
and research, than that of spontaneous feeling and really original
conception. At the same time it must be admitted that, despite the
learning and an alien mythology, to say nothing of the preferred
imitation of Alexandrine models, where the warmth of life is least
apparent, yet as a rule the characteristics of Roman personality no
less than the individual genius of particular poets, do assert an
independent position, and, so long as we put entirely on one side
the most intimate soul and expression of the art of poetry, have
accomplished sterling and consummate results, not merely in the
province of the ode, but also in that of epistles, satires, and elegy.
On the other hand, the later type of satire, which follows as a kind of
supplement, in its bitterness toward the decadence of the times, its
goaded indignation and virtuous declamation, fails to represent the
genuine sphere of an unperturbed poetical vision just in the degree
that it possesses nothing whatever to oppose to its picture of a
demoralized present save this very indignation and abstract rhetoric of
virtuous excitement.
(_c_) For this reason, consequently, it is only after more modern
nationalities have appeared that a really original content and spirit
are communicated to lyrical composition, as we have previously seen,
was the case, too, with the Epic. This is due to the German, Romance,
and Slavonic peoples, which already, in their previous pagan days,
but principally after their conversion to Christianity, both in the
Middle Ages and in more recent times, have brought into being, and
continuously elaborated in various ways, a _third_ fundamental revival
of lyrical creation in what we may generally characterize as the
_romantic_ art-type.
In this third branch of its activity, lyric poetry is of so
overwhelming an importance that its principle is enforced, more
--especially in the first instance, relatively to the Epos, but
consequently in its more modern development and relatively to the
drama, with a far profounder significance than was possible with
either Greek or Roman. Indeed, among certain nations, even genuine
epic materials are treated exclusively under the type of the lyric
narrative; in this way we have compositions as to which we may find
real difficulty in deciding the class to which they more truly belong.
The cause of this conspicuous tendency towards lyric composition is
mainly due to the fact that the entire evolution of the life of these
nations is based on this very principle of subjectivity, which is
constrained to assert and clothe what is substantive and objective as
its own from its own resources, and grows more and more self-conscious
of this penetration into its own personal wealth. Such a principle
declares its vigour in its least perturbed and most complete character
among the German peoples. The Slavonic races have, on the contrary,
first to wrestle forth from the Oriental absorption in the substantive
One and Universal. Between the two we may place the Romance stock,
which are confronted, in the conquered provinces of the Roman Empire,
not merely with the residue of Roman science and culture, but a social
system more elaborate from every point of view. In the process of
self-fusion with such conditions, they inevitably lose a part of their
original character. As for the subject-matter of this poetry, we may
describe it as dealing with pretty nearly every phase of national or
individual development, capable of expressing either the religious or
secular life of these nations as it expands in ever widening range,
and through the process of the centuries reflects in varied condition
and emotional state the heart of its spiritual substance. And the
fundamental type of it is either the expression of an emotional
state, concentrated to the most intimate self-possession, whether the
immediate object of attraction be national and other events, Nature
and external environment, or simply and solely itself, or whether it
be of the nature of reflection, both searching and self-introspective,
upon all that is implied for itself in such an extension of culture.
Regarded on its formal side, the plastic character of rhythmical
versification is exchanged for the music of alliteration, assonance,
and manifold alternations of rhyme. These novel elements it makes
use of sometimes in a quite simple and unassuming manner; in other
connections with much art and invention of modes of versification
wholly distinct in character. At the same time the external delivery
becomes increasingly more elaborate in its powers of adaptation to the
accompaniment of vocal and instrumental music.
In our classification of the extensive compass of this group, we cannot
do better than follow that we accepted in the case of epic poetry.
_First,_ we have the lyric composition of these modern nations while
still in the state of primitive paganism.
_Secondly_, there is the richer development of this type in the
Christian Middle Ages.
_Thirdly_, there is that lyric art based in some measure on the
reawakened study of ancient art, and in part on the fundamental
principle of modern Protestantism, a principle essential to its final
elaboration.
In the present work, however, I shall be unable to discuss with more
detail the characteristics of the above development. I will, by way of
conclusion, merely draw attention to one German poet, whose influence
has given in modern times a quite extraordinary impetus to the lyric
poetry of our own fatherland, and whose services in this respect are
by no means appreciated by contemporary criticism as they deserve
to be. I refer to the poet of the Messias. Klopstock is among the
great Germans, who have inaugurated the new artistic epoch of their
people. He is a great figure, who, by means of courageous enthusiasm
and superb self-respect, wrested our poetry from the stupendous
insignificance of the Gottsched[21] period, which with its blockish
superficiality had completely destroyed the life of all that is noble
and of worth in the genius of our race; who has, in short, given us
poems fully awake to the highest demand of the poet's vocation, in a
form of thorough artistic excellence, if also somewhat austere, the
majority of which are stamped with the permanency of a classic. Some
of the odes of his youth are dedicated to a generous _friendship_,
which was to him at once symbolic of nobility, staunchness, honour,
the pride of his soul, a temple of his spirit. Others have reference
to a _personal_ attachment of real emotional depth, although it is
precisely in this field that we meet with many compositions which a
critical sense can only regard as so much prose. "Selmar and Selma"
is a poem of this class, a gloomy and tedious altercation between
lovers, which, not without many tears, woe, empty yearning, and useless
feats of melancholy emotion, revolves round the one mouldy and musty
question, which of the two, Selmar or Selma, is first to die. But in
Klopstock we find at least a genuine impulse of patriotism alive in
every pore. As a good Protestant the Christian mythology, with its
sacred legends and so forth--we must except the angels, for whom he
retained as a poet a profound respect, although they can only appear
abstract and lifeless in a type of poetry such as his, which claimed
the realism of life--neither satisfied his sense of the ethical
seriousness of art, nor yet the vigour of life and an intelligence,
which aspired to something more than blind wailing and self-abasement,
was, in short, both self-respecting and actively religious. The need
of some mythology, however, and one connected with Germany impressed
him strongly as a poet, in order that he might have definite names and
characters ready to hand as a stable basis of his imaginative creation.
It is impossible to associate such patriotic sentiments with the gods
of Greece. Consequently Klopstock attempted, we may justly say from
genuine national pride, to give a renewed life to the old mythology
of Wodan, Hertha and the rest. He was unfortunately as little able
to carry his aim to the point of objective effect and sufficiency by
this adoption of names of gods, which are no longer really Germanic,
however much they may have been so, as, let us say, the imperial museum
in Regensburg is qualified to stand for the ideal of our present
political life. However strongly, then, he may have felt the need to
be able to realize in poetry and as fact in a national form a general
folk-mythology, the truth of Nature and conscious life, these twilight
gods remain entirely devoid of essential truth; we may add there is a
kind of childish self-flattery in the belief that either reasonable
people or the national faith could take such an attempt seriously.
Apart from this, as objects of interest to the imagination, the
figures of Greek mythology are elaborated in ways with incomparably
more variety, infinitely stronger appeal to our aesthetic taste, our
sense of delight and freedom. In lyric poetry, however, it is the
self-revelation of the poet that is all-important. We ought at least
to honour in our patriotic poet this his solicitude and effort, an
effort which was sufficiently effective to bear subsequent fruit, and,
even in the field of poetry, to stimulate by its suggestion composition
on similar subjects. We have, however, to conclude our review, no word
to say against the purity, excellence, and admirable influence of this
patriotic sentiment of Klopstock as expressed in his enthusiasm for the
honour and value of our German speech, and certain characters of our
former history, that of Herrmann, for example, and above all particular
German Kaisers, who in some instances have even been self-celebrated in
song. Vital in him throughout is his justifiable pride in the German
muse, and his faith in her increasing courage to contend on equal
terms and in high-spirited self-reliance with that of the Greek, the
Roman, and the Englishman. And no less a genuine reflection of his
patriotism is the nature of his survey of the royal princes of Germany,
the expectations which their character have or had it in their power
to arouse on all that generally concerns honour, art, and science,
questions of public import and spiritual objects of essential value. On
the one hand we find him expressing his contempt of our princes, who,
as he tells us, remain on their comfortable chairs, surrounded with the
tobacco smoke of courtiers, buried in present obscurity and yet deeper
to be buried in the future. Or he may express his feelings in the
lament that even Frederick II
Nicht sah, dass Deutschland's Dichtkunst sich schnell erhob,
Aus fester Wurzel daurendem Stamm, und weit,
Der Æste Schalten wurf![22]
With pain of a like quality those vain hopes, too, return back to him,
in which he saw in Kaiser Joseph the uprise of a new world of spiritual
effort and poetry. And, finally, it is an honour to the heart of the
old veteran at least as great that he sympathizes with the present fact
that a people had shattered its fetters of every kind, had trodden
under foot the injustice of a thousand years, and for the first time
sought to found its political life on reason and right.