Page:The Works of J. W. von Goethe, Volume 5.djvu/384

 EIGHTEENTH BOOK

Eetukning to literary matters, I must bring forward a circumstance which had great influence on the Ger- man poetry of this period, and which is especially worthy of remark, because this very influence has lasted through the history of our poetic art to the present day, and will not be lost even in the future.

From the earher times, the Germans were accus- tomed to rhyme : it had this advantage in its favour, that one could proceed in a very natve manner, scarcely doing more than count the syllables. If, with the progress of improvement, attention began more or less instinctively to be paid also to the sense and significa- tion of the syllables, this was highly praiseworthy, and a merit which many poets contrived to make their own. The rhyme was made to mark the close of the poetical proposition: the smaller divisions were indi- cated by shorter hues, and a naturally refined ear began to make provision for variety and grace. But now all at once rhyme was rejected before it was con- sidered that the value of the syllables had not as yet been decided, indeed that it was a difficult thing to decide. Klopstock took the lead. How earnestly he toiled, and what he has accomplished, is well known. Every one felt the uncertainty of the matter; many did not like to run a risk; and, stimulated by this natural tendency, they snatched at a poetic prose. Gessner's extremely charming Idylls opened an endless path. Klopstock wrote the dialogue of " Hermann's Schlacht " (" Hermann's Fight ") in prose, as well as

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