Nikolaus Niembsch von Strehlenau, known as Nikolaus Lenau, the third in the group of the poets of Weltschmerz (Lord Byron is the best example in England), was born in Southern Hungary August 13, 1802. The father, a gambler and libertine, died before the boy was five years old; the mother, a high strung, passionate woman, battled with poverty for the sake of her children, of whom Nikolaus was her idol. His first impression of nature was the silent solitude and vastness of the Hungarian plains, which probably helped to accentuate an inherent strain of melancholy. Led astray by a youthful errant passion, he is haunted by a feeling of guilt, of lost innocence, and Dame Melancholy becomes his faithful life companion. When later happiness in the guise of human love crosses his pathway, he does not dare stretch out his hand. Shuddering, he feels there is something "too fatally abnormal about him that he should affix that heavenly rose to his dark gloomy heart." Living only for his art and ever eager to enrich it with new impressions, he goes to America. There Nature was virgin still, untouched by the hands of man. What a lure! Incidentally he hopes to be cured of his melancholy and to gain an easy competence by investing in government land. After a winter spent on the American frontier (1832-1833) he returns to Germany a sadder, if not a wiser man, and becomes a restless wanderer until in 1844 the fate that he always dreaded overtakes him: his spirit is enshrouded in insanity. Six years later, August 22, 1850, he dies in an asylum near Vienna.

Lenau's poetry is for the most part an expression of intense melancholy, full of "sadness at the doubtful doom of humankind." It abounds in subtle nature descriptions, often quite impressionistic in their effect (76 and especially 77). Sometimes the poet employs a homely realism (75). Lenau was a master of the violin, and his verse is full of striking rhythmical effects; on the whole he prefers the slower cadences so well suited to his nature.

70. An apostrophe to the night, which is addressed as du dunkles Auge.

5, 6. VON HINNEN NEHMEN, to take away.

8. FÜR UND FÜR, forever and ever.

71.—3. Describes vividly the effect of the pale moonlight on the green sedge.

72.—7. WAS for etwas.

10. WILL, wills.

73.—1 ff. In German, May is the incarnation of all spring-time beauty and bliss. Compare 2 and 110 and the word MaienglÜck in 29.

3. OB = Über.

8. STRAßEN, old weak dative.

12. FRÜHLINGSKINDER, i.e., birds.

29 f. MITTEN IN … INNEN, in the midst of.

42. MAG, may.

44. ERDEN, see note on 8.

46. 'S IST EWIG SCHADE, it is too bad, it is a pity.

56. DRÄNGE, subjunctive of purpose.

59. OB, instead of als ob. Common with Lenau.

60. STIMMEN, instead of einstimmen; in ein Lied einstimmen = to join in a song.

63. LAG, lingered.

74. The heavy, slow moving rhythm is in apt harmony with the scene portrayed.

12. 'EINER UM DEN ANDEREN', one after another, in turn.

75.—13. 'DAS AUFGESCHLAGNE GEBET', the prayer to which the book was opened.

76. This may be the direct description either of a Dutch landscape or of a painting. Holland, like most of the North Sea Plain, is one vast level expanse of country, through which the rivers and brooks move but sluggishly. Here and there a Dutch windmill looms up; like all other objects it seems to peer forth from a haze because of the moisture-laden atmosphere. Nowhere else does nature assume such a bewitchingly drowsy aspect in autumn as here.

10. OB, compare note to 73, 59. TRUTZE = trotze.

11. STROHKAPUZE, refers to the straw thatched roof.

77.—6. IN EINS FALLEN, to coalesce.

8. And in sadness become oblivious of each other.

9. HIN UND WIEDER, back and forth.

78. The last of Lenau's Waldlieder. The morbid melancholy of the poet has softened, and death is to him heimlich still vergnÜgtes Tauschen, silent sweet passing from one state to another.

5. VON HINNEN, away.