lacked the courage of the martyr and
fled from the peril of death. _GOTTFRIED KINKEL_ (1815-1882) also took
part in the insurrection in Baden, was captured, and condemned to life
imprisonment, but escaped with the aid of Carl Schurz in 1850. FRANZ
DINGELSTEDT (1814-1881), on the other hand, found his sarcastic _Songs
of a Political Night-Watchman_ (1842) no bar to appointment as director
of the theatres of Munich, Weimar and Vienna.

While the poets of the revolution were busily at work, the conservatives
were not altogether voiceless; nor were the notes of the romantic lyric
silenced. Indeed, men like Hoffmann, Herwegh, and Kinkel could not deny
the strong influence of the romantic motives and tones upon much of
their best poetry. One lyrist greater than any of them was dominated by
the romantic tradition--an Austrian nobleman of mingled German, Slavonic
and Hungarian blood, NIKOLAUS LENAU (the pen-name of Nikolaus Franz
Niembsch Edler von Strehlenau, 1802-1850). A gifted musician, Lenau was
also a master of the melody of words, and his nature-feeling was
unusually deep and true. Abnormally proud, self-centred and sensitive as
he was, Lenau was born to unhappiness and disillusionment; his journey
to America, begun with the most generous anticipations, ended in
homesickness and bitter disappointment. Before he had reached middle
life, his genius went out in the darkness of insanity. The picturesque
and the tragic fascinated Lenau; he could sing with genuine sympathy the
fate of dismembered Poland, or the lawless freedom of Hungarian rebels
and gipsies; but for the great political movements of the day he had
little regard. In the melodious interpretation of nature in sad and
quiet moods he had no rival.

Very different was the wholesome and chivalrous nature of the young
Moravian Count MORITZ VON STRACHWITZ (1822-1847), whose ballads are
unmatched in German literature for spirit and fire. Strachwitz despised
the democratic agitation of the revolutionists, and sang with fine
enthusiasm the coming of the strong man, who, after all the intrigues of
the demagogues, like another Alexander should cut the Gordian knot with
the sword.

With EMANUEL GEIBEL (1815-1884) we come to the voice of fair compromise
between the extremes. Geibel was a conservative liberal, honestly
patriotic without partisanship. Thus his _Twelve Sonnets for
Schleswig-Holstein_ (1846) were broadly German in inspiration, and his
love of liberty was match