« AnteriorContinuar »
genius was distinctly lyrical. Though he wrote a couple of tragedies and a comedy he seemed to be deficient in that constructive faculty which is such an essential element in dramatic writing. Himself a wanderer, influenced by the popular songs of the day, a favorite subject of his lyrics was the wandering minstrel of the Middle Ages. He liked to write poems from the stand-point of some particular character, such as a soldier, sailor, huntsman, fisherman, shepherd, miller, apprentice, etc., putting his songs of love and joy into their own mouths. Many of his lyrics were set to music and sung by composers of eminence. Scherer says, in his History of German Literature: "Eichendorff's Taugenichts is written in the most delightful vein; it is an improbable story, full of misunderstanding, error and strange occurrences, and the reader is most infected with the light-hearted mood of the hero, who triumphs over all obstacles, sings the most beautiful songs, never knows what is happening around him, but is always dreaming and loving.” In his later years Eichendorff published several valuable works on literary history and criticism, including Ueber die Ethische und Religiose Bedeutung der Neueren Romantischen Poesie in Deutschland (1847); Der Deutsche Roman des Achtzehnten Jahrhundert in Seinem Verhältniss zum Christenthum (1851); Geschichte der Poetischen Literatur Deutschlands (1856).
“His poems," writes Professor Goebel, of Leland Stanford University, “are of an unusual sweetness of melody, tenderness, and depth of feeling, and elegance of form." His History of the Poetical Literature of Germany," written," says the same authority, “from the stand-point of the faith of a Roman Catholic, is an interesting and valuable work."
“He was superior,” says another recent critic, “ to all his fellows as a lyric poet. His simplicity and love of nature, his realism and avoidance of the antiquated and conventional, have made him a real favorite with the people."
Many poets have chanted their lays
In Germany's lovely land;
The bards repose in the sand ;
With their wreath encircle the earth,
To the olden beauty new birth.
Though crumbling lies in the sand
The house of the heroes of old,
Each year her new charms to unfold ;-
In the battle, courageous and stout,
- Translated by ALFRED BASKERVILLE,
O silence, wondrous and profound !
O'er earth doth solitude still reign ;
As if the Lord walked o'er the plain.
I feel new life within me glow ;
Where now is my distress and care ?
Here in the blush of waking morn,
I blush at yesterday's despair.
To me, a pilgrim, shall the world,
With all its joys and sorrows, be But as a bridge that leads, O Lord,
Across the stream of time to thee.
And should my song woo worldly gifts,
The base rewards of vanity :
Far in a shaded valley
A water mill appears;
From scenes of happier years.
She promised to be faithful,
She pledged it with a ring ;
Her gift in twain did spring.
And sadly now, a minstrel,
Throughout the world I roam,
Afar from friends and home.
A soldier, would I hasten
Where rages fierce the fight;
Through all the gloomy night.
Yet whilst the mill I'm hearing
I know not what my mind;
I then should quiet find !
ELIOT, JOHN, styled “the Apostle to the Ind. ians," an American clergyman, born at Nasing, Essex, England, in 1604; died at Roxbury, Mass., May 20, 1690. He was educated at the University of Cambridge, came to New England in 1631, and in the following year became “teacher” of the church at Roxbury. He believed the North American Indians to be descended from the lost tribes of Israel ; learned their language, in which he began preaching to them in 1646, and in 1660 organized a church of "praying Indians,” which flourished for several years. He wrote a number of works, one of which, The Christian Commonwealth, printed in England in 1660, was denounced by the Government of the colony as “seditious,” on the ground that it was opposed to the monarchy of England. In 1664 he published an Indian Grammar and a translation of the Psalms into Indian metre. His great work was the translation into Indian of the entire Bible, the New Testament being printed at Cambridge, Mass., in 1661, and the Old Testament in 1663. Its full title is:
Mamusse Wunneetupamatamwe Up-Biblum God naneeswe Nukkone Testament kah wonk Wusku Testament.
Indian words are usually very long, a word being not unfrequently a compound which in most