"Here (in Heiligenstadt, near Vienna, in the summer of 1808, lying by
the brook with nut-trees, listening to the birds singing), I wrote the
'Scene by the Brook,' and the goldhammers there up above me, the
quails and cuckoos round about me, helped compose."--Beethoven to
Schindler. These last words throw a light on the oft-abused passage
where the birds are imitated. We should not judge a Beethoven
hastily--especially not assign to his action low grounds. We here see
that the passage was not introduced in mere material imitation, but
rather as a genial tribute and record; _so_ the passage becomes
beautiful, and the opposite of superficial. Emerson says, "Yon swallow
weaving his straw into his nest should weave it into my poem." No
doubt, in the savage--in his passionate love of freedom and
roaming--we already find the germ of the poetic love of nature; and
some two thousand years ago we find such sublime celebration as this
(and what ages of evolution does it imply!)--
"As when in heaven the stars about the morn
Look beautiful, when all the winds are laid,
And every height comes out and jutting peak
And valley, and the immeasurable heavens
Break open to their highest."--Iliad (Tennyson).
"A rock-wall'd glen, water'd by a streamlet,
And shadowed o'er with pines."--Euripides (Milman).
"Yon starry conclave
Those glorious dynasts of the sky, that bear
Winter and summer round to mortal man."
--Aiskulos (Idem).
"Smooth lies the surface of the purple seas,
Nor curl'd, nor whiten'd, by the gentle breeze;
No more, hoarse dashing from the breakers steep,
The heavy waves recoil into the deep;
The zephyrs breathe, the murm'ring swallow weaves
Her straw-built chamber 'neath the shadowy eaves."
--Agathias (Idem).