Verzeiht, O Franken (Namen der Bruder ist
Der edle Name) dass ich den Deutschen einst
Zurufte, das zu fliehen, warum ich
Ihnen jetzt flehe, euch nachzuahmen.
And, naturally, the acerbation of the poet was all the more bitter,
when this fair dawn of freedom changed to a day that was steeped in
horror and blood, one that murdered liberty. Klopstock, however, was
unable to give poetical expression to such painful feelings. What he
did find the opportunity to say was all the more prosaic, without
definite structure and logical consequence on account of the fact that
he had no higher purpose,[25] veiled in such facts, to set off against
his disappointed hope. His genius was in short entirely blind to any
more profound demand of reason in the facts of such a revolution.
The greatness of Klopstock consists then essentially in his national
sympathies, his keen sense of freedom, friendship, love, and his
staunch Protestantism. We may justly honour him for his noble character
and his noble art, for his effort and achievement. And if, too, in many
directions he shares the limitations of his own times, and in truth is
responsible for many odes that are solely of interest to the critic,
the grammarian, the metrist, odes deficient in all poetic vitality, we
may affirm, nevertheless, that with the single exception of Schiller,
we shall find in our subsequent literature no more noble figure, no
disposition of such serious and masculine independence.
We have, indeed, to compare with him Schiller and Goethe, who are not
merely the poetic exponents of their own times in a spirit resembling
his own, but in their experience as poets are of course far more
comprehensive. And, above all, in the songs of Goethe we Germans
unquestionably possess the most consummate, profound, and influential
poetic compositions of modern times. If they are wholly an expression
of the poet they are equally the treasure of his people; and, in fact,
as the genuine growth of his native soil, are completely in accord with
the fundamental tones of our national life and genius.
[Footnote 1: _Subjectivität._ Individual self-conscious life.]
[Footnote 2: _Das Subject_, here the individual consciousness which
composes.]
[Footnote 3: _Ergusses,_ the pouring out into a mould.]
[Footnote 4: Vol. IV, pp. 169-172.]
[Footnote 5: This appears to be the meaning of the words _die letzte
Music eines nationalen Inneren._]
[Footnote 6: I presume by _Nachhülfe_ Hegel practically means imitation
rather than translation. It may be very much doubted whether any
composition, involving a change of language, can give anything but the
faintest knowledge of the original folk-song. Goethe's genius could
produce poetry out of strange materials, but he could not reproduce the
music of another medium.]
[Footnote 7: _Subjektiver Art_.]
[Footnote 8: Or as the text runs, "and as everybody's poet."]
[Footnote 9: Pausanias, I, c. 8.]
[Footnote 10: Æschines, ep. 4.]
[Footnote 11: _Zusammengezogenheit._ The idea of concentration is also
present.]
[Footnote 12: I have taken the revised translation.]
[Footnote 13: _Äussersichseyn._ The being beside or aloof from oneself,
not so much in the sense of infatuation as ecstasy.]
[Footnote 14: I presume Hegel means this by the words _nur zum
Trällern_; it might mean "merely to be hummed."]
[Footnote 15: _Still in sich_.]
[Footnote 16: High above the life of earth beneath it shall wave in the
blue band of heaven, neighbour to the thunder, on the boundary of the
starry world. It shall be a voice from above, ay, as the bright choir
of the stars, who praise their Creator in their motion and conduct the
garlanded year. Its voice of bronze is dedicate to eternal and earnest
matters alone, and, hour by hour, as it swiftly swings backwards and
forwards, it is one with Time in its flight.]
[Footnote 17: _Einlebung._ This vital fusion with the object.]
[Footnote 18: _In seiner in sich Zurückgenommenen Innerlichkeit_.]
[Footnote 19: _In seinem Aufgehohenseyn._]
[Footnote 20: That is, of the isle of Melos, Sappho's birthplace.]
[Footnote 21: Readers of the Xenien of Goethe and Schiller will recall
the unsparing attacks which were directed against this formalist and
pedant.]
[Footnote 22: Even Frederick II "did not see that the art of German
poesy was raising itself swift on high from the enduring stock of a
stable root, and spread the shade of its branches far abroad."]
[Footnote 23: He greets this new "reawakened sun, no mere dream at
least of mine. Verily I bless thee, who sweepest over my head, my grey
hairs, the strength of me that still endures after its sixty years. Ay,
for was it not this strength which has carried me so far to see this
very vision!"]
[Footnote 24: "Forgive me, brother of France, and brotherhood is the
noblest tie after all, that I once cried to my Germans to flee from
that, which I now implore them to follow--imitation of you." The
reference is of course to the French Revolution.]
[Footnote 25: Hegel may mean that Klopstock was unable to see the real
benefits which would result from the French Revolution despite its
apparent failure. The sentence which follows would, however, suggest an
alternative interpretation that the poet was unable to see the higher
demand which the facts of Revolution made upon the French people,
and which from the first, that is, even when Klopstock admired them,
they did not either frankly face or successfully respond to. I think,
indeed, this latter is most probable.]