The Sorrows of Young Werther and Selected Writings (Signet Classics) by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe & Marcelle Clements

Author:Johann Wolfgang von Goethe & Marcelle Clements [Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781101635483
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2013-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

What furthermore makes a complete misanthrope of the English poet and spreads an unpleasant aura of repugnance against all things over his writing is that, because of the numerous schisms in his communal existence, he must dedicate, if not his whole life, then the better part of it to one political party or other. Such a writer is not permitted to glorify his loved ones, to whom he is devoted, or the cause he favors, because he might otherwise arouse ill will. He therefore uses his talents to speak as harshly as possible of his opponent, and satiric weapons, however adeptly used, always serve to sharpen and poison the atmosphere. When this takes place on both sides, the world that lies between is destroyed, with the result that, in a great and intellectually active nation, one finds at best nothing but folly or madness in their verse. Even the most tender poem is concerned with sad subject matter. Here an abandoned young girl is dying; there a faithful lover drowns or, swimming as fast as he can, is eaten by a shark before he can reach his beloved. And when a poet like Gray settles down in a village churchyard and starts to sing the same old melody, he can be sure of attracting a following among the friends of melancholy. Milton, in “Allegro,” must first dispel all gloom with some violent verse before he can arrive at a very moderate measure of joyful expression, and even our blithe friend Goldsmith loses himself in elegiac sentiments in his “Deserted Village” when he lets his “Traveler” cross the face of the earth to find a lost Eden, which the author describes very beautifully, but sadly.

I do not doubt that it would be possible to confront me with lively and gay English poems as well, but most of the best of them belong to an older epoch, and the latest ones that might be included tend toward satire, are bitter, and especially lack a respect for women.

Suffice it to say that the more general, serious poems mentioned above, which tended to undermine human nature, were our favorites. We picked them out from among all others. One person, according to his personality, chose the lighter lament; another sought a more oppressive despair that was ready to sacrifice all. Strangely enough, our father and teacher, Shakespeare, who knew so well how to spread brightness, also helped to increase our gloom. Hamlet and his monologues remained ghosts that haunted us. We knew the main parts by heart and loved to recite them, and every one of us felt he had to be just as melancholy as the Prince of Denmark, even if he hadn’t seen a ghost and didn’t have a royal father to avenge.

But in order that all this melancholy might not lack a suitable setting, it was left to Ossian to lure us to a final Thule, where we wandered across gray, unending moors, amid prominent, moss-covered gravestones, surrounded by grass that was being eerily swept by the wind, and looked up into a sky that was leaden with clouds.

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