UHLAND
Ludwig Uhland was born April 26, 1787, in Tübingen, where his father and both his grandfathers had been connected with the University. Uhland took up the profession of law, but his heart's desire led him to the study of the older German poetry and folklore, and from 1830 to 1832 he occupied the chair of German Literature in Tübingen. He also took an active part in the political life of his time in the interest of liberal tendencies and a united Germany. He died in Tubingen, November 13, 1862. His poetry is for the most part a product of his earlier years. Reserved and retiring to a fault, Uhland in his lyrics but rarely gives us directly his own emotional life, preferring to let the shepherd, the soldier, the mountain lad speak. The type of the simple folksong predominates, and from the VOLKSLIED Uhland introduced into modern verse the modified Nibelungen stanza and the rhymed couplet. In his ballads Uhland prefers older historical subjects, as in Taillefer, that rarest jewel among his ballads; or at least uses an historic setting, as in the more popular Des Sängers Fluch.
21.—6. Mutterhaus, i.e., source.
18. RUFE ZU, call to them.
22. Notice how the first line, giving the situation, is repeated at the close of the poem and thus frames the picture.
6. Sweet thrills of awe, mysterious stirring.
23.—12. EINMAL, sometime.
24.—7. SICH INS FELD MACHEN, to start out into the field. Compare sich auf den Weg machen, to start out.
25.—67. MIT JEDEM TAG, compare English, with every passing day.
27.—3. IN FREIER HAND, with free, i.e., unsupported, hand.