husband's violent interference.
But returning to the poem "Hyperion," for as such we may regard it, we
find in it the most complete expression of the attitude which the poet,
in his Weltschmerz, assumed toward nature. Nature is his constant
companion, mother, comforter in sorrow, in his brighter moments his
deity. This nature-worship, which speedily develops into a more or less
consistent pantheism, Hoelderlin expresses in Hyperion's second letter,
in the following creed: "Eines zu sein mit allem, was lebt, in seliger
Selbstvergessenheit wiederzukehren ins All der Natur, das ist der Gipfel
der Gedanken und Freuden, das ist die heilige Bergeshoehe, der Ort der
ewigen Ruhe."[69] And so nature is to Hoelderlin always intensely real
and personal. The sea is youthful, full of exuberant joy; the
mountain-tops are hopeful and serene; with shouts of joy the stream
hurls itself like a giant down into the forests. Here and there his
personification of nature becomes even more striking: "O das Morgenlicht
und ich, wir gingen uns entgegen, wie versoehnte Freunde."[70] Still more
intense is this feeling of personal intimacy, when he exclaims: "O
selige Natur! ich weiss nicht, wie mir geschiehet, wenn ich mein Auge
erhebe von deiner Schoene, aber alle Lust des Himmels ist in den Thraenen,
die ich weine vor dir, der Geliebte vor der Geliebten."[71] It is
important for purposes of comparison, to note that notwithstanding his
intense Weltschmerz, in his treatment of nature Hoelderlin does not
select only its gloomy or terrible aspects. Light and shade alternate in
his descriptions, and only here and there is the background entirely
unrelieved. The thunderstorm is to him a dispenser of divine energies
among forest and field, even the seasons of decline and decay are not
left without sunshine: "auf der stummen entblaetterten Landschaft, wo der
Himmel schoener als je, mit Wolken und Sonnenschein um die herbstlich
schlafenden Baeume spielte."[72] One passage in "Hyperion" bears so
striking a resemblance, however, to Lenau's characteristic
nature-pictures, that it shall be given in full--although even here,
when the gloom of his sorrow and disappointment was steadily deepening,
he does not fail to derive comfort from the warm sunshine, a thought for
which we should probably look in vain, had Lenau painted the picture:
"Ich sass mit Alabanda auf einem Huegel der Gegend, in lieblich waermender
Sonn', und um uns spielte der Wind mit abgefallenem