Part 34 (2/2)

O youth, whose skill the ice-cothurn Drives glowing now, and now restrains, On city hearths let f.a.ggots burn, But come with me to crystal plains.

The scene is filled with vapouring light, As when the winter morning's prime Looks on the lake. Above it night Scatters, like stars, the glittering rime.

How still and white is all around!

How rings the track with new sparr'd frost!

Far off the metal's cymbal sound Betrays thee, for a moment lost ...

Cramer tells how Klopstock paid a long-remembered visit to Count Bernstoff at Schloss Stintenburg:

It has a most romantic situation in a bewitching part of Mecklenburg; 'tis surrounded by forest full of delightful gloom, and a large lake, with a charming little island in the centre, which wakes echoes. Klopstock is very fond of echoes, and is always trying to find them in his walks.

This ill.u.s.trates the lines in _Stintenburg_:

Isle of pious solitude, Loved playmate of the echo and the lake, etc.

but in this ode, as in so many of his, simple personal feeling gives way to the stilted mannerism of the bard poetry.

He wrote of Soroe,[12] one of the loveliest places in the Island of Zealand, as 'an uncommonly pleasant place'; where 'By a sacred tree, on a raised gra.s.s plot two hundred paces from the great alley, and from a view over the Friedensburg Lake towards a little wooded island ... f.a.n.n.y appeared to him in the silver evening clouds over the tree-tops.'

The day on which he composed _The Lake of Zurich_ was one of the pleasantest in his life. Cramer says: 'He has often told me and still tells, with youthful fervour, about those delightful days and this excursion: the boat full of people, mostly young, all in good spirits; charming girls, his wife Herzel, a lovely May morning.'

But, unlike St Preux, he 'seemed less impressed by our scenery than by the beauty of our girls,[13] and his letters bear out the remark.[14] Yet delight in Nature was always with him: Klopstock's lofty morality pours forth all through it. Nature, love, fame, wine, everything is looked at from an enn.o.bling point of view.'

Fair is the majesty of all thy works On the green earth, O Mother Nature fair!

But fairer the glad face Enraptured with their view.

Come from the vine banks of the glittering lake, Or--hast thou climbed the smiling skies anew-- Come on the roseate tip Of evening's breezy wing, And teach my song with glee of youth to glow, Sweet joy, like thee--with glee of shouting youths, Or feeling f.a.n.n.y's laugh.

Behind us far already Uto lay.

At whose feet Zurich in the quiet vale Feeds her free sons: behind-- Receding vine-clad hills.

Uncloud'd beamed the top of silver Alps, And warmer beat the heart of gazing youths, And warmer to their fair Companions spoke its glow.

And Haller's Doris sang, the pride of song; And Hirzel's Daphne, dear to Kleist and Gleim; And we youths sang and felt As each were--Hagedorn.

Soon the green meadow took us to the cool And shadowy forest, which becrowns the isle.

Then cam'st thou, Joy; thou cam'st Down in full tide to us; Yes, G.o.ddess Joy, thyself; we felt, we clasp'd, Best sister of humanity, thyself, With thy dear innocence Accompanied, thyself.

Sweet thy inspiring breath, O cheerful Spring; When the meads cradle thee, and their soft airs Into the hearts of youths And hearts of virgins glide, Thou makest feeling conqueror. Ah! through thee Fuller, more tremulous, heaves each blooming breast; With lips spell-freed by thee Young love unfaltering pleads.

Fair gleams the wine, when to the social change Of thought, or heart-felt pleasure, it invites, And the 'Socratic' cup With dewy roses bound, Sheds through the bosom bliss, and wakes resolves, Such as the drunkard knows not--proud resolves Emboldening to despair Whate'er the sage disowns.

Delightful thrills against the panting heart Fame's silver voice--and immortality Is a great thought....

But sweeter, fairer, more delightful, 'tis On a friend's arm to know oneself a friend....

O were ye here, who love me though afar ...

How would we build us huts of friends.h.i.+p, here Together dwell for ever.

This is of Fredensborg on an August day:

Here, too, did Nature tarry, when her hand Pour'd living beauty over dale and hill, And to adorn this pleasant land Long time she lingered and stood still....

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