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.