istic possibilities of the mantle of melancholy "um die wunde Brust
geschlungen,"[156] it follows consistently that he should select for
poetic treatment only those aspects of nature which might serve to
intensify the expression of his grief.

Among the titles of Lenau's lyrics descriptive of nature are "Herbst,"
"Herbstgefuehl" (twice), "Herbstlied," "Ein Herbstabend,"
"Herbstentschluss," "Herbstklage," and many others of a similar kind,
such as "Das duerre Blatt," "In der Wueste," "Fruehlings Tod," etc. If we
disregard a few quite exceptional verses on spring, the statement will
hold that Lenau sees in nature only the seasons and phenomena of
dissolution and decay. So in "Herbstlied":

Ja, ja, ihr lauten Raben,
Hoch in der kuehlen Luft,
's geht wieder ans Begraben,
Ihr flattert um die Gruft![157]

"Je mehr man sich an die Natur anschliesst," the poet writes to Sophie
Schwab, "je mehr man sich in Betrachtungen ihrer Zuege vertieft, desto
mehr wird man ergriffen von dem Geiste der Sehnsucht, des schwermuetigen
Hinsterbens, der durch die Natur auf Erden weht."[158] Characteristic is
the setting which the poet gives to the "Waldkapelle":

Der dunkle Wald umrauscht den Wiesengrund,
Gar duester liegt der graue Berg dahinter,
Das duerre Laub, der Windhauch gibt es kund,
Geschritten kommt allmaehlig schon der Winter.

Die Sonne ging, umhuellt von Wolken dicht,
Unfreundlich, ohne Scheideblick von hinnen,
Und die Natur verstummt, im Daemmerlicht
Schwermuetig ihrem Tode nachzusinnen.[159]

The sunset is represented as a dying of the sun, the leaves fall sobbing
from the trees, the clouds are dissolved in tears, the wind is described
as a murderer. We see then that Lenau's treatment of nature is
essentially different from Hoelderlin's. The latter explains man through
nature; Lenau explains nature through man. Hoelderlin describes love as a
heavenly plant,[160] youth as the springtime of the heart,[161] tears as
the dew of love;[162] Lenau, on the other hand, characterizes rain as
the tears of heaven, for him the woods are glad,[163] the brooklet
weeps,[164] the air is idle, the buds and blossoms listen,[165] the
forest in its autumn foliage is "herbstlich geroetet, so wie ein
Kranker, der sich neigt zum Sterben, wenn fluechtig noch sich seine
Wangen faerben."[166] A remarkable simile, and at the same time
characteristic for Lenau in its morbidness is the following:

W