Types of Weltschmerz in German Poetry | Page 2

expression of an
abnormal sensitiveness of the feelings to the moral and physical evils
and misery of existence--a condition which may or may not be based
upon a reasoned conviction that the sum of human misery is greater
than the sum of human happiness. It is usually characterized also by a
certain lack of will-energy, a sort of sentimental yielding to these
painful emotions. It is therefore entirely a matter of "Gemüt."
Pessimism, on the other hand, purports to be a theory of existence, the
result of deliberate philosophic argument and investigation, by which
its votaries have reached the dispassionate conclusion that there is no
real good or pleasure in the world that is not clearly outweighed by evil
or pain, and that therefore self-destruction, or at least final annihilation
is the consummation devoutly to be wished.
James Sully, in his elaborate treatise on Pessimism,[1] divides it,
however, into reasoned and unreasoned Pessimism, including
Weltschmerz under the latter head. This is entirely compatible with the
definition of Weltschmerz which has been attempted above. But it is
interesting to note the attitude of the pessimistic school of philosophy
toward this unreasoned pessimism. It emphatically disclaims any
interest in or connection with it, and describes all those who are
afflicted with the malady as execrable fellows--to quote Hartmann--:
"Klageweiber männlichen und weiblichen Geschlechts, welche am
meisten zur Discreditierung des Pessimismus beigetragen haben, die
sich in ewigem Lamento ergehen, und entweder unaufhörlich in
Thränen schwimmen, oder bitter wie Wermut und Essig, sich selbst
und andern das Dasein noch mehr vergällen; eine jämmerliche
Situation des Stimmungspessimismus, der sie nicht leben und nicht
sterben lässt."[2] And yet Hartmann himself does not hesitate to admit
that this very condition of individual Weltschmerz, or "Zerrissenheit,"
is a necessary and inevitable stage in the progress of the mind toward
that clarified universal Weltschmerz which is based upon theoretical

insight, namely pessimism in its most logical sense. This being granted,
we shall not be far astray in assuming that it is also the stage to which
the philosophic pessimist will sometimes revert, when a strong sense of
his own individuality asserts itself.
If we attempt a classification of Weltschmerz with regard to its essence,
or, better perhaps, with regard to its origin, we shall find that the
various types may be classed under one of two heads: either as cosmic
or as egoistic. The representatives of cosmic Weltschmerz are those
poets whose first concern is not their personal fate, their own
unhappiness, it may be, but who see first and foremost the sad fate of
humanity and regard their own misfortunes merely as a part of the
common destiny. The representatives of the second type are those
introspective natures who are first and chiefly aware of their own
misery and finally come to regard it as representative of universal evil.
The former proceed from the general to the particular, the latter from
the particular to the general. But that these types must necessarily be
entirely distinct in all cases, as Marchand[3] asserts, seems open to
serious doubt. It is inconceivable that a poet into whose personal
experience no shadows have fallen should take the woes of humanity
very deeply to heart; nor again could we imagine that one who has
brooded over the unhappy condition of mankind in general should
never give expression to a note of personal sorrow. It is in the
complexity of motives in one and the same subject that the difficulty
lies in making rigid and sharp distinctions. In some cases Weltschmerz
may arise from honest conviction or genuine despair, in others it may
be something entirely artificial, merely a cloak to cover personal
defects. Sometimes it may even be due to a desire to pose as a martyr,
and sometimes nothing more than an attempt to ape the prevailing
fashion. To these types Wilhelm Scherer adds "Müssiggänger, welche
sich die Zeit mit übler Laune vertreiben, missvergnügte Lyriker, deren
Gedichte nicht mehr gelesen werden, und Spatzenköpfe, welche den
Pessimismus für besonderen Tiefsinn halten und um jeden Preis
tiefsinnig erscheinen wollen."[4]
But it is with Weltschmerz in its outward manifestations as it finds
expression in the poet's writings, that we shall be chiefly concerned in

the following pages. And here the subdivisions, if we attempt to
classify, must be almost as numerous as the representatives themselves.
In Hölderlin we have the ardent Hellenic idealist; Lenau gives
expression to all the pathos of Weltschmerz, Heine is its satirist, the
misanthrope, while in Raabe we even have a pessimistic humorist.
This brief list needs scarcely be supplemented by other names of poets
of melancholy, such as Reinhold Lenz, Heinrich von Kleist, Robert
Southey, Byron, Leopardi, in order to command our attention by reason
of the tragic fate which ended the lives of nearly all of these men, the
most frequent