“Nicht unsrer Lesewelt, und nicht der Ewigkeit”: Late Style in Gleim's Zeit- and Sinngedichte (1792–1803)

Summary

GOETHE's ASSESSMENT OF the poet Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim in his memoir, Dichtung und Wahrheit (Poetry and Truth, 1811– 33), reserves Gleim a place in history as much for his generosity to other writers as for his own literary accomplishments as an author. Goethe describes Gleim's penchant for giving generously as well as his apparently compulsive habit of writing poetry:

Beide Tätigkeiten flochten sich während seines ganzen langen Lebens unablässig durch einander. Er hätte eben sowohl des Atemholens entbehrt als des Dichtens und Schenkens, und, indem er bedürftigen Talenten aller Art über frühere oder spätere Verlegenheiten hinaus und dadurch wirklich der Literatur zur Ehren half, gewann er sich so viele Freunde, Schuldner und Abhängige, daß man ihm seine breite Poesie gerne gelten ließ, weil man ihm für die reichlichen Wohltaten nichts zu erwidern vermochte als Duldung seiner Gedichte.

[Both activities were inextricably and relentlessly woven throughout the whole of his long life. He could as easily have done without breathing as without writing poetry and giving to others. He helped all kinds of talented writers in need, whether they fell into times of trouble early or late. This was not only a great credit to our literature, but he also acquired so many friends, debtors, and dependents as a result that one gladly put up with his copious poetic works. All that was required in return for his generous charity was that one tolerate his poems.]

Goethe's gently condescending tone in the final line here is unmistakable. He dismisses the majority of Gleim's poetry as something that merely had to be “tolerated” in order to ensure his continuing generosity— which (Goethe suggests) was perhaps his greatest contribution to literary history overall. Such a put-down from Goethe would surely be enough to force any German writer out of the canon and into the “second tier,” yet to this day Gleim is still found on undergraduate reading lists. The work that is most studied today is, however, the only one of Gleim's works that Goethe praised in Dichtung und Wahrheit, his Preußische Kriegslieder in den Feldzügen 1756 und 1757 von einem Grenadier (Prussian War Songs from the Campaigns of 1756 and 1757, by a Grenadier, 1758). At first glance, it seems that Goethe's assessment of Gleim's character and career tallies with his status in the canon, and, for a large part, his place in German Studies.