His _Trooper's Song_ is a variation
of an old theme and is of great metrical interest in that here, as
in Uhland, one may observe how the subtle handling of rhythm, the
lengthening or shortening of a line, or the shift of stress, brings
with it a corresponding shift of emotion. _Lichtenstein_ is the story
of the struggle of Ulrich of Wuertemberg against the Suabian League and
gives us a Romantic picture of the Duke which is not justified by the
facts. It was, however, an attempt to vitalize history and owes its
origin to the Romantic longing for fatherland. Its immediate impulse
among Scott's novels was _Quentin Durward_ and, like _Quentin
Durward_, it has a double plot--the sentimental young lovers and the
romantic ruler. It also shows all the pageantry of Romanticism and the
naive technique of the beginning of an art-form in the early stages of
a new literary movement.
Friedrich Rueckert (1788-1866) was prevented from taking part in the
Wars of Liberation by poor health, but added his _Sonnets in Harness_
to the poetry of the period. These sonnets had no such stirring effect
as the poems of Koerner, not only because of their literary form, but
because, in spite of their unquestioned belligerency, they had not the
tone of religious conviction against the enemy which characterized
the verses of Arndt and the rest. Other poems, like _Koerner's Spirit_,
show how deeply Rueckert felt himself in sympathy with his times; his
reward has been to have added a very large number of poems to the
every-day repertory of Germany.
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