germ 305 essay 1 revison

7/31/2019 Germ 305 Essay 1 Revison

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Klopstock und Hller

Brett Anderson

Albrecht von Haller and Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock utilize the didactic philosophical

poem in order to present their ideas about God, the individual, and our place in the universe.

HallersDie Alpen and KlopstocksDem Allgegenwrtigen, Der Zrchersee, andDie

Frhlingsfeieruse analogies, metaphors, and examples to reach logical conclusions in the typical

fashion of philosophical poems; however, the syntax, diction, and structure of stanzas make the

works of both of these poets works highly divergent from their predecessors through

independent styles with mutually successful results. These distinctions create emotional,

cultural, sensorial, and existential (37, Dorter) effects which bring about the aesthetic experience

in an attempt to circumvent logic in the search for natural truth. Haller utilizes the lives of

people presently experiencing a natural existence, while Klopstock explores natural forms from

our past and seeks to create a future free from artistically restrictive conventions.

Haller is representative of the shift from theology to philosophy as the basis of medicine,

natural history, and law. He uses science in conjunction with experience and a central theme to

create an aesthetic experience and therefore, was much more overtly critical of his societys

culture and political system. He saw socially constructed morals and material wealth in general

as detracting from a persons chances of finding true happiness in a natural ethical life while

subsisting on the wholesome necessities needed to survive.

Haller calls upon his scientific understanding, interest in naturalism, and expeditions

through the Alpine wilderness for inspiration in his workdie Alpen. His choices in alexandrine

meter, rhyme scheme, and mid-line caesuras are closer in spirit to the formulaic poetry of the

seventeenth century than Klopstocks; nonetheless, his clarity and precision invoke feelings of


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order and grace, and reveal many layers of complexity to what at first may seem rigid and

forced. In this respect, Hallers structure simultaneously reinforces his message for the city-

dwelling mannamely: that there lies a more natural existence outside of the confines of society

which is founded on the principles of reason, learned through aesthetic experiences in nature.

While his work is often compared to James Thomsons The Seasons, (66, Wiswall) it is

important to note that Hallers description of Natures cycle of life and death was written one

year before Thomsons. Thomsons writing also explored the significance of seasonal cycles;

with an important difference being that he began his project with the publication of Winter

followed sequentially by Summer, Spring, andAutumn. It became much more accessible to the

German audience when it was translated fifteen years later. Each set of stanzas which represent

a season bring the duality of natures existence to light, emphasizing the beauty and usefulness in

its life. All subjects of these sections are given scientific classifications and meaningful

descriptions. Summer contrasts with spring as the beginning of heat and ripening against the

progression of life through the relaxed grip of winter. Autumn receives particular attention by

Haller who portrays fruits waiting patiently in the trees while the leaves fall, cold wind blows,

and gray fog collects (11, Haller). The next three stanzas round out Hallers description of

autumn, by discussing the merits of wine-making, the hunt, and making cheese. Once again it is

the scientifically descriptive nature of his work that sets Haller apart from Klopstock, whose

descriptions of nature always related to God or the individual, such as his vision of a man

surrounded by stormy seas.

As Haller transitions into winter the comfort of the alpine villagers stands in contrast with

the hardships that the working class face in cities where men must work through the winter to

earn enough for their daily bread. Understanding this, lines 249-250 have further implications.


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Das ganze Haus greift an und schmt sich, leer zu stehen,

Kein Sklaven-Handwerk ist so schwer als Miggehen. (13, Haller)

The starving multitudes who have sought refuge in the city, therefore are not only suffering

because they are desperately hungry, but also because of their chronic idleness, if their lives

were transposed with that of the alpine villagers, many would not go hungry, as their labor would

not be dependent on the whims of factory owners and businessmen.

The winter stanzas are a collection of people who have developed specific talents of great

interest. The first is a man who has learned from the patterns of nature how to predict the

weather. His art depends on a broad knowledge of the moon, winds, and clouds gained from his

observations of their interactions, which has been as useful as a thousand books. A young

musician who is fond of the lyre finds his inspiration in love and nature, his songs are pure and

free from the constructs that similarly limited artists and poets in European society. The next

two men speak of history and natural moral code of their culture, this time explicitly mentioning

the hardships of the starving beggar. The final perspective is that of a naturalist who understands

the power of nature and the wondrous herbs that inhabit it. This man has several parallels to the

experience of Haller, so his interjection here can be seen as a claim that his aesthetic experiences

in nature are only a small part of a larger system.

Haller now returns to a description of the Alps both as an observer from the edges and the

summit above the clouds. He relates the feeling of the sublime that one experiences with such a

perspective, while being sure to point out that the mountains and glaciers are more than just

artistic masterpiecesmillions across the continent depend on the Alpine water to live. This fact

means that even people far removed from the summit, those that have never seen the slopes

benefit from their presence. Haller interrupts his descriptions here by referencing the autonomy


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of reason, stating that anyone with noble senses trained by art can see beauty by examining any

place they cast their gaze. In other words, it takes a mind with an appreciation for aesthetic

character to discover pure aesthetic truth in nature. In existential terms, this truth promotes a

cultural shift to a society where emotion dictates our interactions and we appreciate that our

senses transcend physical boundaries into imaginative space.

Hallers specific botanical research is utilized in the next page as scenes of sparkling

flowers in a meadow leave him feeling like there is a hierarchy and system of dominance in the

fields. The struggle between gold and blue plays out against a backdrop of deep green and

glittering diamonds of water. Hallers descriptions of the minutia of the natural world, down to

the shape and color of rare varieties of flowers provokes both the emotional and cognitive

response necessary to leave an aesthetic experience.

Haller shifts one again in describing the beauty of non-living features of nature, including

the streams, caves, crystals, and richness of minerals and metals. The significance of this

becomes apparent when a mountain shepherd walking along notices kernels of gold at his feet

but leaves them untouched to preserve the natural beauty of his home. Haller now turns his

poetic and scientific words to the cities with their greed, envy, and corruption leaving them

without wellbeing, true companionship, or an appreciation for beauty. This is precisely

summarized as Der Freundschaft himmlich Feur kann nie bei euch entbrennen,/ Wo Neid und

Eigennutz auch Brder-Herzen trenne. (21, Haller) Haller describes the lives of the villagers

one more time, listing the virtues of their emotionally authentic lifestyle, the natural and

balanced rhythm of the seasons that they live and die in, and defiantly declaring that religion is

unnecessary in their society, that not even the promise of eternal life in heaven would make them

happier. These last two sentences are radically different from the thoughts of Klopstock, who


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believes that God can be found through nature. It is clear that for Haller, the natural lifestyle of

the Alpine people is sufficient, that once a connection with the natural world is established there

is no longer any need for an all-powerful deity to guide our actions and give us salvation. The

difference is as clear as that between the two societies rights of marriage, where the city people

are contractually bound by the church and state and marriages are arranged through dowries.

The hearts of the Alpine villagers are brought together with a marriage sealed with a kiss, a pure

expression of love free from any external approval.

Wiswall unifies die Alpen by stating that the people emulate their surroundings,

becoming as rugged and hearty as the mountains themselves. She declares that Hallers poetry

exists on four levels description, appreciation of the coexistence of beauty and usefulness, a

didactic message, and a philosophical message. (110,Wiswall) In ending her discussion of

Haller, she attests that the ideas ofdie Alpenform a unified idea of the relationships of man to

man and man to his environment (111, Wiswall) and are therefore not limited to the situations

that Haller presented. With a brotherhood of man and communion with nature, suddenly the

perceived need for a relationship with God disappears; nature becomes the universal source of

our experience and the lodestone that draws the entire world together.

The idea of a divine authority did not disappear in poetry after Hallers critiques.

Klopstock was still driven by a search for religious experience and the sublime in general. His

method of repeating and building upon earlier phrases establishes his poem as a hymnal prayer.

The tone and substance of Klopstocks poems are meant to make one feel their individual

insignificance before the infinite power and magnitude of God. In doing so, he hopes to

stimulate his audiences consciousness ofthe insignificance of an individual, forcing us to find

purpose in natural experiences rather than existence. Klopstocks poems feature a multitude of


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stanzas written without rhyme and free from a standard rhythm, and he wrote in this style on a

broad range of topics including religious experience and nature. Der Zurchersee is one such

poem, where Klopstock adds uniformity in his stanzas lengths and removes many religious

overtones to make the poem more musical than spiritual. Love, passion, and friendship are the

subjects of this poem. His epiphany on nature connects the emotion and cognition of the

aesthetic experience through our humanity, what he believes is a web of interactions and

emotions between individuals. The principle of humanity ties in neatly with Hallers vision of

unity of man and nature, and associatively supports similar bonds among men. Klopstock also

explicitly references the work of Haller, through mention ofHallers Doris. Robert Browning

sees little conflict in his mention here, arguing for the virtuous feeling of pleasure when emotion

and cognition, or feeling and reason (41, Browning) are balanced. Zurchersee contrasts starkly

with HallersAlpen mostly through Klopstocks lack of specific scientific descriptions, instead

relying on general descriptions of the scene. A difference in perspective also creates a

distinction between their works. Haller writes in a narrative sense where other characters bring

stories and scenes together, while Klopstock is fond of including dialog from his protagonist and

centering on his experience.

Kevin Hilliard explains Klopstocks vision of God, Nature, andman by saying the

ranking is in ascending order of importance; and what is typical of Klopstocks thought is that

each level serves as a platform from which the next can be surveyed. The beauty and the

majesty of lower objects serve (Neo-Platonically) as types of the higher forms. (82, Hilliard)

Hilliard references the platonic school of thought to emphasize that lower levels are only

shadows of the true form, which matches Klopstocks sentiments quite well. This method of

transcendence is very visible inDem Allgegenwrtigen while a secular piece such asZurchersee


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stops at the natural level. Alternatively, Klopstock will bypass the examination of the individual,

as seen in die Frhlingsfeier.

As a part of the pious cult of feeling, Klopstocks largest contribution is his deviant

style in how he writes his poetry, while the subject remains very conventional, in direct

opposition with Hallers typical technical pattern, and unconventional ideas and techniques for

conducting research. Klopstocks poems are usually predominantly emotional, for him thinking

and feeling are one. (197, Browning) It would therefore make sense to focus on cultivating an

emotional response in a religious setting, where spirit is valued more than wit. Klopstock set out

to create poetry that would be completely independent of ordinary writing, and in doing so

created a style vastly different from other German writers that he changed as his life progressed.

Haller and Klopstock are both highly experienced in presenting ideas and situations

concisely, such as in Hallers step by step description of people making cheese. Haller does this

because of stylistic and structural constraintshis intention is to discuss a different aspect in

each verse. Klopstock on the other hand, compresses his speech simply for its poetic merit,

rearranging words, using a variety of metaphors, and removing nonessential syllables. Browning

also reveals that Klopstock thoroughly believed that one had to emotionally experience

something to write about it, bringing his sentiments in line with Haller. Klopstock also believed

in elevating any individual situations that he wrote about to the plane of symbolic universality.

(207, Browning)

Klopstocks evolving stages in poetic expression are outlined by K. A. Schleiden and are

reprinted by Browning. His first period is characterized by the development of early poetic

forms used by Horace and Homer and his topics covered friendship, love, and his office. From

1754 to 1765 he introduced free verse into his poems and focused on religious topics. His third


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stage continued until 1776, he would commonly invent meters for his poems and would write

about language, poetrys progress, and the fatherland. His final stage is lasted until his death in

1803 and stylistically returned to his first stage. It was in this time that he wrote a majority of his

poems. Thanks to the completion of his lifes work,Messias, and the French Revolution he had

both the time and inspiration to write reflectively and politically, with others on topics from

immortality to the life of memory. This timetable of experimentation stands in contrast to the

uniformity that can be observed in Hallers poetry; Klopstocks content covers a surprisingly

diverse field despite his self-imposed restriction that he may only write on topics that he has

experienced emotionally.

Die Frhlingsfeier, while more interested in God than die Alpen exemplifies Klopstock

and Hallers mutual reliance on the natural world for creating noteworthy and moving poetic

scenes. Klopstock begins by asserting that the Earth and any other object that we can

comprehend is nur um den Tropfen am Eimer, (89, Klopstock) just a drop in a bucket, of

Gods creation. He shifts to question the place of a little golden worm; it is mortal, unaware of

the scale of its surroundings, but does it have an immortal soul? Klopstock then remembers that

we cannot know all of the mysteries of God and must have a faith and will of unshaken

determination. Through experiencing a violent storm a sublime experience is produced,

questions are left unanswered, but the world moves on. When one considers his finite

dimensions in an infinite setting, the idea of having never-ending consciousness through an

immortal soul is a reliable consolation. In a calamity, a force of destruction could reduce our

civilization to dust, but in a religious context we would live on through our souls, immortal. This

belief ties into Neo-Platonism once again by claiming that the physical manifestations of our

bodies are lower forms of the soul. Klopstock was most definitely a physicotheologist, he had a


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steadfast belief that god is in nature and could be comprehended through understanding nature.

Klopstock also questioned the existence of suffering and evil in his poems, making him a student

of theodicy. Klopstock sought justification for the ills of society while Haller strove to find ways

to alleviate them.

The tiny worm is said to recognize the storm in order to prove the mercy, omnipotence,

and goodness of God. At the poems close the spectacular nature of the storm, the theatrical

quality that keeps it from presenting a serious threat is stressed (247, Browning) to demonstrate

that there is no danger in the natural world that God does not control with mercy. Is a spring

storm a test of faith? Those who are conscious of Auschwitz, Hiroshima, and the fire-bombing of

Dresden are ready to smile condescendingly. (247, Browning) To answer these questions, only

a threat of danger is necessary to stimulate a test of faith, and the famous Lisbon earthquake took

place four years prior to Klopstock writing this poem, the academic circles of Europe certainly

hadnt finished discussing the effects of the quake. His continuous reference to spring is likely

metaphoric for a new beginning and regrowth, not destruction that is typically associated with

winter. The shared principle of seeing God through nature is thus approached through contrary

methods. Klopstock, as previously stated, saw more value in emotion and believed that

cognition would come inherently as a natural response to this emotion. He also saw nature as a

stepping stone to understanding God, rather than a source of ultimate understanding and virtue.

Haller saw virtue in grace obtained from the natural world and believed that nature has the

answers to lifes great mysteries. As he was a scientist by trade he had a natural tendency to

prefer logical cognition over emotion. This point reveals an ironic feature of Hallers writing, by

favoring the cognitive side of aesthetics he briefly embraces the system of moral logic that he is


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trying to avoid. The use of seasons by both authors also illuminate the weakness that they must

rely on images that people associate with the seasons to properly convey their points.

They formed the basis for an exploration of aesthetic experience and the sublime by

Kant, Sulzer, and others. Each placed sublime and aesthetic experiences in their poems, as

inspired by music, the Bible, and art in Klopstocks case, or through mountain voyages in the

case of Haller. Each was searching for information and a means of expressing their findings, and

both found a method that was suitable to them and uniquely their own.

Hallers format in die Alpen, although not a clich sonnet, rigidly operates in ten line verses with

a rhyme scheme of A-B-A-B-C-D-C-D-E-E; additionally, each line contains twelve syllables and

these lines are bisected into segments six syllables long. His forty-nine verses paint a complete

picture of the Alps each covering a distinct aspect of the mountains. Klopstock is more often a

fan of linear progression in his poems, where the subject is traced throughout with much more

concrete transitions between sections of his work, while Haller can make jumps between life and

the seasons. Klopstock is very prudent in his usage of words, anything that can be implied, left

out, or stated poetically without shifting the meaning of the work as a whole, generally is for the

sake of creating poetry that is unlike any other kind of writing. His true genius lies in the

precedent he set for German poetry, to expand outside the traditional confines to which it had

grown attached.

The innovative approaches that these two poets established in this radical political and

cultural environment prepared the way for others in the long 18th

century, when hierarchy,

famine, and debt in the French Monarchy would lead to the greatest revolution in all of recorded

history. The comparison between their methods served to unify their effort, yet diversify the

search for answers.


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Works Cited

Browning, Robert Marcellus. "The Cult of Feeling: Klopstock." German Poetry in the Age of the

Enlightenment: From Brockes to Klopstock. University Park: Pennsylvania State UP,

1978. Print.

Dorter, Kenneth. "Conceptual Truth and Aesthetic Truth." The Journal of Aestheics and Art

Criticism 48.1 (1990): 37-40.JSTOR. Web. 21 Oct. 2012.

.

Haller, Albrecht. "Die Alpen." 2012.Die Alpen Und Andere Gedichte. Stuttgart: Philipp Reclam

Jun. Print.

Hilliard, Kevin F. "Philosophy and Letters I: The Dispute between Rhetoric and

Philosophy." Philosophy, Letters, and the Fine Arts in Klopstock's Thought. Vol. 12.

London: Institute of Germanic Studies, University of London, 1987. Print.

Klopstock, Friedrich G. "Die Frhlingsfeier." 2012.Ausgewhlte Werke. Munich: Carl Hanser

Verlag. Print.

Wiswall, Dorothy R. "Nature and Landscape Description."A Comparison of Selected Poetic and

Scientific Works of Albrecht Von Haller. Darmstadt: Peter Lang, 1981. Print.

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