ie auf dem Lager sich der Seelenkranke,
Wirft sich der Strauch im Winde hin und her.[167]

Hoelderlin speaks of a friend's bereavement as "ein schwarzer
Sturm";[168] when he had grieved Diotima he compares himself to the
cloud passing over the serene face of the moon;[169] gloomy thoughts he
designates by the common metaphor "der Schatten eines Woelkchens auf der
Stirne."[170] Lenau turns the comparison and says:

Am Himmelsantlitz wandelt ein Gedanke,
Die duestre Wolke dort, so bang, so schwer.[171]

Where Hoelderlin finds delight in the incorporeal elements of nature,
such as light, ether, and ascribes personal qualities and functions to
them, Lenau on the contrary always chooses the tangible things and
invests them with such mental and moral attributes as are in harmony
with his gloomy state of mind. Consequently Lenau's Weltschmerz never
remains abstract; indeed, the almost endless variety of concrete
pictures in which he gives it expression is nothing short of remarkable,
not only in the sympathetic nature-setting which he gives to his
lamentations, but also in the striking metaphors which he employs. Of
the former, probably no better illustration could be found in all
Lenau's poems than his well-known "Schilflieder"[172] and his numerous
songs to Autumn. One or two examples of his incomparable use of
nature-metaphors in the expression of his Weltschmerz will suffice:

Hab' ich gleich, als ich so sacht
Durch die Stoppeln hingeschritten,
Aller Sensen auch gedacht,
Die ins Leben mir geschnitten.[173]

Auch mir ist Herbst, und leiser
Trag' ich den Berg hinab
Mein Buendel duerre Reiser
Die mir das Leben gab.[174]

Der Mond zieht traurig durch die Sphaeren,
Denn all die Seinen ruhn im Grab;
Drum wischt er sich die hellen Zaehren
Bei Nacht an unsern Blumen ab.[175]

The forceful directness of Lenau's metaphors from nature is aptly shown
in the following comparison of two passages, one from Hoelderlin's "An
die Natur," the other from Lenau's "Herbstklage," in which both poets
employ the same poetic fancy to express the same idea.

Tot ist nun, die mich erzog und stillte,
Tot ist nun die jugendliche Welt,
Diese Brust, die einst ein Himmel fuellte,
Tot und duerftig wie ein Stoppelfeld.[176]

If we compare the simile in the last line with the corresponding
metaphor used by Lenau in the following stanza,--

Wie der