Poetry in the Age of Enlightenment

1. Poetry in the Age of Enlightenment • A very brief pre-history: Renaissance and Barock • Introduction into some of the main authors, their jobs and places where they lived • Comments on the poems in the handout • Discussion of basic themes dealt with • Some basic ideas about metric and rhyme issues • Recommended reading for the seminar

2. The different movements within the literature of the 18th century

3. A very brief Pre-History • Age of the Renaissance (15th/16th century) • heliocentric view of the world • observation of nature instead of faith • at the same time: Age of Reformation • the belief becomes a means of an argument • protestant churches established • the 30jähriger Krieg (1618-1648) • devastating effects for mainland Europe • stabilisation needed: the absolute monarch as a new model for dealing with the turmoil (he, not the nobility, not the churches ran the state from then on)

4. The Baroque Era (17th century) • absolutism deals with the public sector, the political issues and tries to guarantee a peaceful environment for trade and commerce • the private sphere is the sphere of the bourgeois • acting as merchants (economical strengthening) • family structure (nuclear / core family) • development of thinking • development of the educated ‘classes’ • in jurisdiction, administration, education • later in the 18th century the private sphere starts to reclaim political influence since the bourgeois merchant and the educated classes are gaining more and more self-confidence

5. One of the most famous Baroque authors • Andreas Gryphius (1616-1664) • from Silesia (Schlesien) • studied and taught at Leiden • 1647 back to Glogau in Silesia • as a lawyer of the Landstände • “Es ist alles eitell” • sonnet, alexandrine verses (stress on formality, contrasts) • theme: vanity (die Eitelkeit) • intention: in favour of ‘nature’ as something eternal (instead of religion) in the historical turmoil

6. Barthold Heinrich Brockes • (1680-1747) • Hamburg, from 1720 onwards member of the Senate • popularizer of new natural history in his 9 volumes of Irdisches Vergnügen in Gott • writing according to the paradigm of ‚Physikotheologie‘ • Verstandesaufklärung • “Die kleine Fliege” • simpler in metre: trochaic verses with 4 stresses; lack of rhyme pattern • didactic poem: logic argument instead of symbolic formula

7. Albrecht von Haller • (1708-1777) • born in Bern • medic and doctor, teaching at the Göttingen for 17 years (medicine and botany) • nobleman since 1749, returning to Bern • known for his lengthy poem Die Alpen • tends to slightly depressive moods in his sentimental poems (Empfindsamkeit) • “Trauer-Ode” • stanzaic pattern; iambic verses with 4 stressed syllables, strictly alternating • shift towards depiction of experience and feelings (own life) • stressing grief, pains, relationship

8. Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim • (1719-1803) • studied at Halle, lived in Halberstadt (Prussia) • secretary of the cathedral chapter (Domkapitel) at Halberstadt • admirer of Frederik the Great • cult of frienship and sociability • patron of up to 20 poets and authors • Anakreontik movement in literature • “Anakreon” • no rhyme scheme; iambic • playful dealing with a sujet (Wein, Liebe, Gesang) • stressing the sheer joy of life

9. Friedrich von Hagedorn • (1708-1754) • born in Hamburg • studied at Jena • secretary of the Danish ambassador in London; admirer of English literature • secretary of the „Company of Merchants Adventurers of England“ at Hamburg • member of the pseudo nobility at Hamburg: Stadtpatriziat • Rokoko-literature • “Der Tag der Freude” • light tone, alternating rhyme, iambic (4 stresses) • use of images and formulas (Phyllis)

10. Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock • (1724-1803) • born in Quedlinburg • studied theology at Jena and Leipzig • lived at Zürich, Kopenhagen (honorarium of the Danish king), and Hamburg • one of the first professional writers in Germany • best known for his Messias and his odes and hymns • religious and sentimental poetry (Empfindsamkeit)

11. Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock • (1724-1803) • Homework for the next meeting:Concentrate your reading very much on the two poems by Klopstock in your reader. • What is different with Klopstock’s poems compared to the earlier ones? • Find out something about the metre, rhyme, stanzaic patterns. • Write down what you think is the theme of the two poems. • List and try to explain key terms within both poems. • Explain why you find it difficult to understand the poems.

12. Recommended reading-list for this topic • Hansers Sozialgeschichte der deutschen Literatur, Vol. 3 (München, Wien: dtv, 1984) • theme of nature, Brockes (pp. 551-556) • Hagedorn and Haller (pp. 560-564) • Gleim and Anakreontik (pp. 564-568) • Bürgertum and lyrical poetry, the paradigms of being a poet (pp. 569-576) • Klopstock (pp. 585-591) • Further readings • W.A. Bruford, Germany in the Eighteenth Century: The Social Background of the Literary Revival (Cam-bridge: University Press, 1965) [943.05 BRU] • Victor Lange, The Classical Age of German Literature. 1740-1815 (London: Arnold, 1982) [830.96 LAN]