Friedrich RÜckert, born May 16, 1788, died January 31, 1866, represents the combination of poet and scholar in a more striking degree than even Uhland, but he lacks the latter's rare critical ability regarding his own verse. Oriental languages were his special field, and a most astounding technical skill enabled him to reproduce in German the complex Oriental verse forms with their intricate rhyme schemes. Something of this technical skill is apparent in 45, the one well-nigh perfect poem of RÜckert. The third stanza is an adaptation from a children's rhyme. This the poet uses as the main motif at regular intervals, slightly varying it in the sixth to express his own feelings directly, and closing the poem with it in the ninth. A similar parallelism is apparent in the odd lines of each stanza. The last line of each stanza must be read with three accents: Was mein einst war, X — — —.

45.—7. OB, I wonder whether.

14. UNBEWUßTER WEISHEIT FROH, joyous in unconscious wisdom, i.e., full of wisdom and not aware of it.

16. SALOMO, Solomon, the wise king of the Hebrews. Oriental legends attributed to him magic and supernatural knowledge.

25. WOHL, concessive, it is true.