e of the
translations and poems, here reprinted, in bringing things German
before the American public depends naturally upon the importance of
the channel by which they were introduced. From what has just been
said, it is evident that the magazine not only had a wider and freer
scope then than now, but also attempted to preserve as high a
literary and scholarly standard as was possible for that day. What was
admitted to its pages had therefore considerable weight and influence,
and became known at once as far as the magazine circulated. It is for
this reason that the appearance of so many poems and prose articles
relating to the German countries becomes so important, and the
interest here aroused was to increase many fold in the decades
immediately following.

The publication of translations of German poetry in the American
magazines indicates a twofold activity. In the first place it shows
active interest and enthusiasm on the part of a few individuals who
read and appreciated German literature and who had the ability not
only to understand the foreign poetry but also to translate it for
their fellow countrymen. How many there were who could read the
original, it is impossible to say, but these translators were
certainly only a small part of the Americans who understood German. In
the second place the appearance of German poems in the magazines
indicates a growing acquaintance with German literature, on the part
of the public at large. From the fact that the number of translations
increased from year to year we may infer that they found favor in the
eyes of the readers. Even if the circulation of the individual
magazines was small, the combined effect of so many must have been
considerable.

It may seem at first thought that relatively few poems have been
collected in proportion to the ground covered.[19] There is a
limitation, however, that must not be overlooked. Only a small part of
each magazine was devoted to poetry and, after the original
productions and the republications of English verse (which naturally
received first consideration), German could only hope for its share
along with the other foreign literatures. It is remarkable how many
foreign literatures are represented in the sections of these magazines
devoted to poetry. There are translations from the Latin, French,
German, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Norse (Icelandic), Italian, Spanish,
Portuguese, Irish, Welsh, Greek, Laplandish, Persian and Turkish. I