German Romantic Poets

Unlike the more earnest English Romantic poets, followers of the Romantic movement in Germany valued wit and humor along with beauty. Admiration for nature is also prominent in their poetry, and in particular the dramatic forests which still cover large areas of Germany. Love and death crop up repeatedly as themes in such famous works as Goethe’s ‘Elf King’ and Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde. Characters from myth and folklore abound—most famously Lorelei, an enchantress who is associated with the rock of the same name on the bank of the Rhine, who is featured in several poems in this volume. Also gathered here are such favorites as Hölderlin’s ‘Bread and Wine,’ Schiller’s ‘The Visit of the Gods,’ Eichendorff’s ‘Nocturne,’ and Heine’s ‘The Magic Month of May,’ along with works by the most famous women writers of the Romantic era, including Karoline von Günderrode and Sophie Mereau.