Part 43 (1/2)

Him who dare name, And yet proclaim, Yes, I believe?...

The All-embracer, All-sustainer, Doth he not embrace, sustain Thee, me, himself?

Lifts not the heaven its dome above?

Doth not the firm-set earth beneath us rise?

And beaming tenderly with looks of love, Climb not the everlasting stars on high?

The poems which date directly after the Wetzlar period are full of this sympathetic pantheistic love for Nature--_Mahomet's Song_, for example, with its splendid comparison of pioneering genius to a mountain torrent:

Ho! the spring that bursts From the mountain height Joyous and bright, As the gleam of a star....

Down in the vale below Flowers bud beneath his tread ...

And woo him with fond eyes.

And the streamlets of the mountains Shout to him, and cry out 'Brother'!

Brother! take thy brothers with thee, With thee to thine ancient father, To the eternal Ocean, Who with outstretch'd arms awaits us....

And so beareth he his brothers To their primal sire expectant, All his bosom throbbing, heaving, With a wild, tumultuous joy.

We see the same pathos--the pathos of Pindar and the Psalms--in the comparison:

Like water is the soul of man, From heaven it comes, to heaven it goes, And back again to earth in ceaseless change.

in the incomparable _Wanderer_, in _Wanderer's Storm Song,_ and, above all, in _Ganymede_, already given, of which Loeper remarks:

The poem is, as it were, a rendering of that letter (Werther's of May 10th) in rhythm. The underlying pantheism had already shewn itself in the _Wanderer's Storm Song_. It was not the delight in G.o.d of a Brockes, not the adoration of a Klopstock, not sesthetic enjoyment of Nature, not, as in later years, scientific interest; it was rather a being absorbed in, identified with, Nature, a sympathy carried so far that the very ego was surrendered to the elements.

On the Lake of Zurich he wrote, June 15th, 1775:

And here I drink new blood, fresh food, From world so free, so blest; How sweet is Nature and how good, Who holds me to her breast.

and Elmire sings in _Ermin and Elmire_:

From thee, O Nature, with deep breath I drink in painful pleasure.

One of the gems among his Nature poems is _Autumn Feelings_ (it was the autumn of his love for Lilli):

Flourish greener as ye clamber, O ye leaves, to seek my chamber; Up the trellised vine on high May ye swell, twin-berries tender, Juicier far, and with more splendour Ripen, and more speedily.

O'er ye broods the sun at even, As he sinks to rest, and heaven Softly breathes into your ear All its fertilizing fulness, While the moon's refres.h.i.+ng coolness, Magic-laden, hovers near.

And alas! ye're watered ever By a stream of tears that rill From mine eyes--tears ceasing never, Tears of love that nought can still.

The lyrical effect here depends upon the blending of a single impression of Nature with the pa.s.sing mood--an occasional poem rare even for Goethe.

In a letter to Frau von Stein he admitted that he was greatly influenced by Nature:

I have slept well and am quite awake, only a quiet sadness lies upon my soul.... The weather agrees exactly with my state of mind, and I begin to believe that it is the weather around me which has the most immediate effect upon me, and the great world thrills my little one with her own mood.

Again, _To the Moon_, in the spring 1778, expresses perfect communion between Nature and feeling:

Flooded are the brakes and dells With thy phantom light, And my soul receives the spell Of thy mystic night.

To the meadow dost thou send Something of thy grace, Like the kind eye of a friend Beaming on my face.

Echoes of departed times Vibrate in mine ear, Joyous, sad, like spirit chimes, As I wander here.

Flow, flow on, thou little brook, Ever onward go!