Bildungsromans; Germany -- Fiction; Poets, German -- Fiction
Aid to fetter the Earth-spirit,
Learn to know the sense of dying,
And the word of life discover;
Hither turn at last.
Soon will all thy power be over,
Borrowed light away be flying,
Soon art fettered, O Earth-spirit,
And thy time of empire past.
This poem was perhaps a prologue to a second chapter. Now an entirely
new period of the work would have opened; the highest life proceeding
from the stillest death; he has lived among the dead and conversed with
them. Now the book would have become nearly dramatic, the epic tone, as
it were, uniting together and simply explaining the single scenes.
Henry suddenly finds himself in Italy, distracted, rent with wars; he
sees himself the leader of an army. All the elements of war play in
poetic colors. With an irregular band, he attacks a hostile city; here
appears in episode the love of a noble of Pisa for a Florentine maiden.
War-songs--"a great war, like a duel, noble, philosophical, human
throughout. Spirit of the old chivalry; the tournament. Spirit of
bacchanalian sadness.[4] Men must fall by each other,--nobler than to
fall by fate. They seek death.--Honor, fame, is the warrior's joy and
life. The warrior lives in death and like a shade. Desire for death is
the warrior-spirit. Upon the earth is war at home; it must be upon
earth."--In Pisa Henry finds the Son of Frederick the Second, who
becomes his confidential friend. He also travels to Loretto. Several
songs were to follow here.
The poet is cast away on the shores of Greece by a tempest. The old
world with its heroes and treasures of art fills his mind. He converses
with a Grecian about morality. Everything from ancient times is present
to him; he learns to understand the old pictures and histories.
Conversation upon Grecian polity and mythology.
After becoming acquainted with the heroic age and with antiquity, he
visits the Holy Land, for which he had felt so great a longing from his
youth. He seeks Jerusalem, and acquaints himself with Oriental poetry.
Strange events among the infidels detain him in desert regions; he
discovers the family of the eastern girl (see Part I.): the manners and
life of nomadic tribes.--Persian tales, recollections of the remotest
antiquity. The book during all these various events was to retain its
characteristic hue, and recall to mind the blue flower: throughout, the
most distant and distinct traditions were to be knit together, Grecian,
Oriental, Biblical, Christian, with reminiscences of and references to
both the Indian and Northern mythology.--The Crusades.--Life at sea.--
Henry visits Rome. Roman history.
Sated with his experiences, Henry at length returns to Germany. He
finds his grandfather, a profound character; Klingsohr is in his
society. An evening's conversation with them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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