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In: Germany·Poetry·German Literature
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #17364.
Wilhelm Alfred Braun’s essay is a scholarly study that treats Weltschmerz, the poetic feeling of world‑pain, as a distinct psychological and literary phenomenon. Opening with a modest declaration of intent, Braun sets out to define Weltschmerz, separate it from pessimism, and classify its types by tracing their origins and expressions. He limits his scope to three emblematic poets, Hölderlin, Lenau, and Heine, each illustrating a progressive stage of the sentiment: the idealist, the self‑conscious melancholic, and the satirist who masks his sorrow with irony. The work proceeds through close analysis of these authors, situating their lyric anguish within broader cultural, philosophical, and medical contexts, and concludes with an extensive bibliography.
The prose reflects early‑20th‑century academic rigor, blending literary criticism with psychological insight and historical commentary. Readers with an interest in German Romantic and post‑Romantic poetry, the intellectual history of melancholy, or the interplay between genius and mental health will find Braun’s methodical approach and detailed textual examinations rewarding. It appeals especially to scholars, graduate students, and informed amateurs who appreciate a dense, interdisciplinary treatment of 19th‑century German verse.
The opening · free to read
The work which is presented in the following pages is intended to be a modest contribution to the natural history of Weltschmerz.
The writer has endeavored first of all to define carefully the distinction between pessimism and Weltschmerz; then to classify the latter, both as to its origin and its forms of expression, and to indicate briefly its relation to mental pathology and to contemporary social and political conditions. The three poets selected for discussion, were chosen because they represent distinct types, under which probably all other poets of Weltschmerz may be classified, or to which they will at least be found analogous; and to the extent to which such is the case, the treatise may be regarded as exhaustive. In the case of each author treated, the development of the peculiar phase of Weltschmerz characteristic of him has been traced, and analyzed with reference to its various modes of expression. Hoelderlin is the idealist, Lenau exhibits the profoundly pathetic side of Weltschmerz, while Heine is its satirist. They have been considered in this order, because they represent three progressive stages of Weltschmerz viewed as a psychological process: Hoelderlin naive, Lenau self-conscious, Heine endeavoring to conceal his melancholy beneath the disguise of self-irony.
It is a pleasure to tender my grateful acknowledgments to my former Professors, Calvin Thomas and William H. Carpenter of Columbia University, and Camillo von Klenze and Starr Willard Cutting of the University of Chicago, under whose stimulating direction and never-failing assistance my graduate studies were carried on.
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