68 THE REALISTIC IDYL. 



tual interests Voss found in tlie country school-house and parson- 

 age, and his choice and treatment of just this field revealed genuine 

 poetic discrimination and even creative power on his part. Here, 

 too, Voss felt perfectly at home. His father had taught school 

 and his wife Luise was the daughter of a country parson. The 

 happiest experiences of his life had come to him in this harbor of 

 peace, upon whose secluded shore the ocean-waves of the troubled 

 world beat only with gentle murmur. 



This attractive sphere Voss has depicted in Der Siebzigste 

 Geburtstag, and the three idyls which eventually were united into 

 the idyllic epic Luise. In Der siebzigste Geburtstag Voss has 

 erected a beautiful monument to his parents. He himself is the 

 expected son who brings Ernestine to visit the old home. This 

 poem marks Voss's highest power as a writer of idyls, "eine Perle 

 unserer Litteratur", as Julian Schmidt says. It is replete with 

 the atmosphere of love and restfulness, in its simplicity and brevity 

 it is the most perfect panegyric of happy family life. With what 

 art does the poet describe the mother's busy preparations for the 

 reception of the son and the daughter-in-law who were coming to 

 join in the birthday celebration of the aged father! With what 

 loving minuteness does Voss refer to every detail of his childhood 

 home!' With what grace does the young wife' on her arrival, 

 when she sees the slumbering father, awaken him with a kiss!^ — 

 Voss wrote no other idyl of equal power and objectivity.' 



1 See Voss p. 137, lines 21—30 in Deut. Nat. Lit. 



2 The fine closing lines are: (The mother) 



"Offnete leise die Klink'und liess die Kinder hineingehn. 

 Aber die junge Frau mit schonem lachelndem Antlitz 

 Hiipfte hinzu und kiisste des Greises Wange. Erschrocken 

 Sah er empor und hing in seiner Kinder Umarmung." 



3 When Voss for the first time collected and published these idyls in his 

 Vermischte Gedichte, we can see by Wieland's review in Der teutsche Merkur, 

 August 178.5, how they were received by Voss's contemporaries. Wieland says; 

 "Seine Idyllen sind nicht Kopieen, nicht idealisierte Nachahmungen des grie- 

 chischen Hirtendichters: essind wahre Theokritisehe Gedichte, nicht bloss in seiner 

 Manier sondern mit seinem Oeiste gedlchtet, der durch Idealempsychose in un- 

 sern Landsmann iibergangen zu sein scheint. Gerade so, denke ich .... wiirde 



