18th/19th Century Poets & Writers

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 

Night Thoughts 

Oh, unhappy stars! Your fate I mourn, 
Ye be whom the sea-toss'd sailors lighted,
Who with radiant beams the heav'ns adorn,
By by gods and men unrequited:
For ye love not, -ne'er have learnt to love!
Ceaselessly in endless dance ye move,
In the spacious sky your charms displaying,
Since, within my loved one's arms delaying,
I've forgotten you and midnight too!

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was born in Frankfurt in 1749. He studied law in Leibzig and Strasbourg, because his father requested it, from 1765-1771. He earned recognition with his poems and lyrics while studying law. He returned to Frankfurt to practice law while working on his career as a poet and writer. Götz von Berlichingen mit der eisenen Hand was published in 1773. He took over many political offices, but still concentrated on writing. He was very interested in science; he traveled through Italy from 1786-1790 where he undertook scientific researches. He developed a new style of writing called the Weimarer Klassik in 1794 with his friend Friedenrich Schiller.

(Source: www.famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/johann_wolfgang_von_goethe) (Image Source: http://www.imagenpolitica.com/elblog/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/28-AGOSTO-1749-NACE-JOHANN-WOLFGANG-VON-GOETHE-ESCRITOR-ALEMAN.jpg)

Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff 

Mondnacht (Night of the Moon)

Es war, als hätt der Himmel
Die Erde still geküsst
Dass sie im Blütenschimmer
Von ihm nun träumen müsst

Die Luft ging durch die Felder
Die Ähren wogten sacht
Es rauschten leis die Wälder
So sternklar war die Nacht

Und meine Seele spannte
Weit ihre Flügel aus
Flog durch die stillen Lande
Als flöge sie nach Haus

It was as though the sky
had silently kissed the earth,
so that it now had to dream of sky
in shimmers of flowers.

The air went through the fields,
the corn-ears leaned heavy down
the woods swished softly—
so clear with stars was the night

And my soul stretched
its wings out wide,
flew through the silent lands
as though it were flying home.

Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff was considered one of the great writers of the German Romantic movement. He studied law at Heidelberg, and continued his studies in Berlin. He enlisted in the military and fought against Napolean in the Prussian War in 1813. The Napoleanic Wars are the source of nostalgia in his poetry. He wrote a romantic novel, Ahnung und Gegenwart (Premonition and Present) in 1819, and a fairy tale, Novellen des Marmorbilds (Novellas of a Marble Statue) in 1819. His most important prose work, Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts (Memoirs of a Good-For-Nothing) was published in 1826, it is considered a highpoint of Romantic fiction. He was born in Prussia in 1788 and died in Neisse in 1857.
(Source: http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/joseph_freiherr_von_eichendorff) (Image Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/Eichendorff.jpg)

Friedenrich Willhelm Nietzsche

Friedenrich Willhelm Nietzsche lived from 1844-1900. He was a German philologist, philosopher, cultured critic, poet and composer. His key ideas include perspectivism, the Will to Power (the driving force in humans such as achievement), ambition, striving to reach the highest possible position in life, the Übermensch (superhuman, higher person or being), eternal recurrence (the concept that the universe has been recurring and will continue to recur, in a self similar form an infinite number of times across infinite time or space, and the "death of God": "God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that world has yet owned bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood off us? What water is there for us to clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what sacred games shall we have to invent? Is not the greatness of this deed too great for us? Must we ourselves not become gods simply to appear worthy of it?" Nietzsche, The Gay Science 
(Sources: www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche, www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_to_Power, www.wikipedia.org/wiki/eternal_recurrence, www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Übermensch, www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_God) (Image Source: http://cdn1.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/images/friedrich-nietzsche-1.jpg)