The art of every nation then will bear national imprint. The national stamp, this expression of personality and individuality, both products of various kinds of environment, belongs to Herder’s conception of Volk wherever the idea is identical with that of nation or race.
Now the preceding chapter has shown that however often Herder uses the term as synonymous with nation or race, he has also a distinctive and a sort of esoteric use.
The evidence that poetry has been shaped by environment and expresses the individual consciousness of a group of people cannot be taken as conclusive evidence that the group from which it emanated belongs to Herder’s Volk of the specific type, for Herder excludes from the category of Volkslieder that poetry which bears the imprint of scholastic and pedantic cultural milieu to the extent that certain primitive traits find no expression.
Another common factor, then, must be sought which is distinctive of people in this more restricted sense.
The way in which the material is presented is what I have called in my analysis of the pieces “the method of appeal.” There is no common basis on which we can place the specimens viewing them from this side. Many of them present vivid visual and auditory pictures. Many others are marked by abstract thinking or sober reflection. Some are dramatic presentations, others are simple descriptions. Some are cold moralizing; others expressions of strong emotions.
All of these selections are in some kind of rhythmic form. It may be parallelism, rhythmical blank verse, or marked feet and rhyme. But we cannot make use of this as a very definite factor, since many specimens are translations which cannot preserve the original exactly. However, we have in the original the English and Scotch, the Ossian and the German collections. All of these present a form of rhythm which is usually so irregular that it would not meet the demands for measured feet, verses, and rhyme to be found in the highly polished and formal poetry. Now in his discussion of rhythmic forms in poetry Herder indicates that the human love for rhythm has its foundations in the physiological processes and symmetry of the body: Der Pulsschlag der Natur, dies Athemholen der Empfindung ist in allen Reden des Affekts ... in der Poesie ... die doch eigentlich Rede des Affekts seyn soll.
The people who produced this poetry, then, were close to nature in their forms of rhythmical speech.
The content of these poems remains to be considered.
Among the Esthonian pieces is a little love song which Herder has heard the harvesters sing at work. It is idyllic in setting. Thoughts of love are all-abounding. Happiness amidst rural scenes is common among all nations.