(1810-1876)
[Illustration: FERDINAND FREILIGRATH]
In times of political degradation the poets of Germany, turning from
their own surroundings, have sought poetical material either in the
glories of a dim past or in the exotic splendors of remote lands.
Goethe, disquieted by the French Revolution, took up Chinese and
Persian studies; the romantic poets revivified the picturesqueness of
the Middle Ages; and during the second quarter of this century the
Orient began to exercise a potent charm. Platen wrote his beautiful
'Gaselen,' Rueckert sang in Persian measure and translated the
Indian 'Sakuntala,' and Bodenstedt fashioned the dainty songs of
"Mirza-Schaffy." Freiligrath too, a child of his time, entered upon
his literary career with poems which took their themes from distant
climes. Among his earliest verses after 'Moosthee' (Iceland-Moss Tea),
written at the age of sixteen, were 'Africa,' 'Der Scheik am Sinai'
(The Sheik on Sinai), and 'Der Loewenritt' (The Lion's Ride). Even in
these early poems, we find all that brilliancy of Oriental imagery to
which he tells us he had been inspired by much poring over an
illustrated Bible in his childhood.
But Freiligrath, like Uhland and Herwegh, was a man of action and a
patriot. The revolution of 1848 had brought fresh breezes into the
stagnation of political life; and though they soon were stilled again,
the men who had breathed that air ceased to be the dreamers of dreams
that the romantic poets had been. They were conscious of a mission,
and became the robust heralds of a larger and a freer time.
Freiligrath was a schoolmaster's son; he was born at Detmold on June
17th, 1810, and much against his private inclinations, he was sent in
his sixteenth year to an uncle in Soest to prepare himself for a
mercantile career. The death of his father threw him upon his own
resources, and he took a position in an Amsterdam bank. Here the
inspiration of the sea widened the range of his poetic fancy. To
Chamisso is due the credit of introducing the poet to the general
public through the pages of the Musenalmanach. This was in 1835. In
1838 appeared the first volume of his poems, and it won instant and
unusual favor; Gutzkow called him the German Hugo. With this
encouragement Freiligrath definitely abandoned mercantile life. In
1841 he married. At the suggestion of Alexander von Humboldt, the King
of Prussia granted him a royal pension; and as no conditions were
attached, it was accepted. This was a bitter disappointment to the
ardent revolutionary poets, who had counted Freiligrath as one of
themselves; but the turbulent times which preceded the revolution soon
forced him into an open declaration of principles, and although he had
said in one of his poems that the poet was above all party, in 1844,
influenced by Hoffmann von Fallersleben, he resigned his pension,
announced his position, and in May published a volume of revolutionary
poems entitled 'Mein Glaubensbekenntniss' (My Confession of Faith).
This book created the wildest enthusiasm, and placed its author at
once in the front rank of the people's partisans. He fled to Brussels,
and in 1846 published under the title of 'Ca Ira' six new songs, which
were a trumpet-call to revolution. The poet deemed it prudent to
retire to London, and he was about to accept an invitation from
Longfellow to cross the ocean when the revolution broke out, and he
returned to Duesseldorf to put himself at the head of the democratic
party on the Rhine. But he was a poet and not a leader, and he
indiscreetly exposed himself to arrest by an inflammatory poem, 'Die
Todten an die Lebenden' (The Dead to the Living). The jury however
acquitted him, and he at once assumed the management of the New
Rhenish Gazette at Cologne.
It is a curious fact that during this agitated time Freiligrath wrote
some of his tenderest poetry. In the collection which appeared in 1849
with the title 'Zwischen den Garben' (Between the Sheaves), was
included that exquisite hymn to love: 'Oh, Love So Long as Love Thou
Canst,' perhaps the most perfect of all his lyrical productions, and
certainly evidence that the poet could touch the strings to deep
emotions. In the following year both volumes of his 'New Political and
Social Poems' were ready. Once more he prudently retired to London;
his fears were confirmed by the immediate confiscation of these new
volumes, and by the publication of a letter of apprehension. By way of
reprisal he wrote his poem 'The Revolution,' which was published in
London.
In 1867 the Swiss bank with which Freiligrath was connected closed its
London branch, and the poet again faced an uncertain future. His
friends on the Rhine, hearing of his difficulties, raised a generous
subscription, and taking advantage of a general amnesty, he returned
to the fatherland and became associated with the Stuttgart Illustrated
Magazine. In 1870 appeared a complete collection of his poems; in
1876, 'New Poems'; and in the latter year, on March 18th, he died at
Cannstatt in Wuertemburg.
The question which Freiligrath asks the emigrants in his early poem of
that name,--'O say, why seek ye other lands?'--was destined to find
frequent and bitter answer in his own checkered career; but he never
swerved from the liberal principles which he had publicly announced.
His political poems were among the most powerful influences of his
time, and they have a permanent value as the expression of the spirit
of freedom. His translations are marvels of fidelity and beauty. His
'Hiawatha' and 'The Ancient Mariner,' together with his versions of
Victor Hugo, are perhaps the best examples of his surpassing skill.
His own works have been for the most part excellently translated into
English. His daughter published during her father's lifetime a volume
of his poems, in which were collected all the best English
translations then available. The exotic subjects of his early poems
make them seem the most original, as for example 'Der Mohrenfuerst'
(The Moorish Prince) and 'Der Blumen Rache' (The Revenge of the
Flowers); the unusual rhymes hold the attention, and the sonorous
melody of the verse delights the ear: but it is in a few of his superb
love lyrics that he touches the highest point of his genius, although
his fame continues to rest upon his impassioned songs of freedom and
his name to be associated with the rich imagery of the Orient.