Political verse, of which there had been occasional specimens among the work of Platen and Lenau, Uhland and Heine, now concentrates and crystallises itself into a separate species of poetry, a separate form of art. Political song of every variety is heard throughout the land. It is a time of growth; men of talent come to the surface in crowds--Hoffmann and Herwegh, Dingelstedt and Prutz, Freiligrath and Max Waldau, Karl Beck and Mofitz Hartmann--such a rich and fragant bloom as had never been seen in this domain before. Old Romanticists expressed their contempt for prose (_i.e._ political) poetry, dogmatic æsthetes declared these poets to be possessed of rhetoric and not of lyric talent; but all to no purpose; the very number of them, and the way in which they spontaneously fell into position as a group, showed that they had the very best, the only unchallengeable reason for coming into existence, namely, that they could not help it, that the spirit of the times was making its voice heard through them; and soon they also proved that they possessed the one and only right to exist, for they were able to hold their ground, they took their position as literary men, and gained the popular ear. They had had a single forerunner in the Thirties, the above-mentioned Austrian poet, Alexander Auersperg. His verse was imposing, somewhat overloaded with imagery, at times wanting in taste; nevertheless it had the true ring, and his pathos was genuine. Joseph II. is Auersperg's hero, and it is from the "enlightenment" standpoint that he regards that political liberty which he so eagerly desires. It is the power of the priesthood that specially arouses his wrath; but he distinguishes between _Pfaffen_ and _Priester_, attacks the worthless and sings the praises of the high-minded among the clergy. Upon lines like: "Stoss in's Horn, Herold des Krieges: Zu den Waffen, zu den Waffen! Kampf und Krieg der argen Horde heuchlerischer, dummer Pfaffen!"[1] follow others which extol the virtues of the really saintly priests. Still we feel that in his opinion more of the former than of the latter are to be found in his own day. He regards it as one of the signs of the times that the fat, animal priest has been succeeded by the lean, intelligent, ambitious one: _Die Dicken und die Dünnen._ "Fünfzig Jahre sind's, da riefen unsere Aeltern zu den Waffen, Krieg und Kampf den dicken, kugelrunden, feisten Pfaffen! Auch in Waffen stehn wir Enkel; jetzt doch muss die Lösung sein: Krieg und Kampf den dünnen, magern, spindelhagern Pfäffelein!"[2]