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Selected And Edited With Notes And Vocabulary
By
FRIEDRICH BRUNS
Assistant Professor Of German, University Of Wisconsin
[Illustration: Ricordo di Tivoli, by Anselm Feuerbach]
In compiling this Anthology my aim has been not so much to acquaint thestudent with individual great poems as with the poets themselves. Withthis end in view I have made the selections as full and as varied aspossible and included in the Notes short introductory sketches of thepoets. Since the book is intended for the work of fourth and fifthsemester German in College (or third and fourth year High School),pedagogic considerations imposed certain limitations not only as toindividual poems but also as to poets. Thus I felt that I must excludeNovalis, Hölderlin, Brentano, Annette von Droste, Nietzsche and Dehmel.My standard of difficulty—aside from matters purely linguistic—was:Could a similar poem in English be read and appreciated by the same classof students? Moreover I tried out in a class of fourth semester Germanall poems that seemed to offer special difficulties and have made use ofthe experience thus acquired.
Some of my readers will undoubtedly be surprised at finding only twopoems of Schiller included in the collection. May I point to the lengthof these two poems, 270 lines? Even to Goethe I have given only 362lines. Why did I choose these two poems? The lighter lyric verse ofSchiller is not representative of the poet nor would it have enriched theAnthology with a new note. Das Lied von der Glocke is too long for thissmall volume and is readily accessible in three different schooleditions. Schiller is at his best in his philosophical lyrics: as Goethehas said, in this field he is absolutely supreme. Poems like Das Idealund das Leben or Der Spaziergang are far too difficult for our youngerstudents. Das verschleierte Bild zu Sais, however, offers aphilosophical problem which the younger mind can grasp without specialtraining in philosophy. A few introductory remarks, such as I have givenin the notes, will prepare the way. Both poems, furthermore, exemplifySchiller's ethical idealism. Certainly no other poems available at thisstage could do more.
I have often been asked by teachers: How do you teach lyric poetry? Ananswer is found in my Notes to a number of the poems. The chiefprerequisite is a warm love for the poets: nowhere is enthusiasm morecontagious. A few introductory remarks will open the world of the poem tothe student. The teacher must, of course, develop in the students theirlatent rhythmical sense both by example and precept. Aside from thislyric poetry teaches itself.
As to the use of the book I should suggest spending two or three weeks onone or two poets—I should begin with Goethe—and after that spend onehour a week for a semester or even a year. Some poems could be assignedfor outside reading and then a group of poems be discussed in class.
On the whole I have limited myself to those poets that to-day stand outas preëminent. A possible exception is the once famous Rückert. I couldnot resist the temptation of including his Aus der Jugendzeit, a poemof consummate beauty, Rückert's one perfect lyric. Time has beenrelentless in its winnowing process. But if Geibel, Wilhelm Müller andBodenstedt have given way to Mörike, Keller and Hebbel, we assuredly haveno reason for lament. If this little book hel