38.—2. EIN SCHUß FÄLLT, a shot (of a gun) is heard.
40.—5. ENTBRENNTE for entbrannte.
42. Compare with 38, as to the use of the human element.
1. DER NEBEL FÄLLT, i.e., sinks away.
2. WIE BALD SICH'S RÜHRET, how soon life will stir.
43.—4. Note the onomatopoetic effect of the rhythm.
44. This poem is the quintessence of Eichendorff's lyric verse. Note the construction of the stanzas. The first stanza is composed of two syntactic units: 1 and 2, 3 and 4; the second of four units; notice the effect of the two heavy syllables sternklar; the third stanza reverts in structure to the first. Notice the effect of the inversion in 10: Weit ihre Flügel aus, — XX — X —.
RÜCKERT
Friedrich Rückert, born May 16, 1788, died January 31, 1866, represents the combination of poet and scholar in a more striking degree than even Uhland, but he lacks the latter's rare critical ability regarding his own verse. Oriental languages were his special field, and a most astounding technical skill enabled him to reproduce in German the complex Oriental verse forms with their intricate rhyme schemes. Something of this technical skill is apparent in 45, the one well-nigh perfect poem of Rückert. The third stanza is an adaptation from a children's rhyme. This the poet uses as the main motif at regular intervals, slightly varying it in the sixth to express his own feelings directly, and closing the poem with it in the ninth. A similar parallelism is apparent in the odd lines of each stanza. The last line of each stanza must be read with three accents: Was mein einst war, X — — —.
45.—7. OB, I wonder whether.