better than in Hyperion's "Schicksalslied" does he give poetic
expression to this thought. Omitting the first stanza it reads thus:

Schicksallos wie der schlafende
Saeugling atmen die Himmlischen;
Keusch bewahrt
In bescheidener Knospe,
Bluehet ewig
Ihnen der Geist,
Und die seligen Augen
Blicken in stiller
Ewiger Klarheit.

Doch uns ist gegeben,
Auf keiner Staette zu ruhn,
Es schwinden, es fallen
Die leidenden Menschen
Blindlings von einer
Stunde zur andern,
Wie Wasser von Klippe
Zu Klippe geworfen,
Jahrlang ins Ungewisse hinab.[39]

The fundamental difference between Hoelderlin's "Anschauung" and Goethe's
is at once apparent when we recall the "Lied der Parzen" from
"Iphigenie." Hoelderlin does not bring the blessed Genii into any
relation with mortals, but merely contrasts their free and blissful
existence, emphasizing their immunity from Fate, to which suffering
humanity is subject. But this humanity is represented by Hoelderlin
characteristically as helpless, passive--"schwinden," "fallen,"
"blindlings von einer Stunde zur andern." Whereas the opening lines of
Goethe's "Parzen" strike the keynote of _conflict_ between the gods and
men:

Es fuerchte die Goetter
Das Menschengeschlecht!
Sie halten die Herrschaft
In ewigen Haenden
Und koennen sie brauchen
Wie's ihnen gefaellt.
Der fuerchte sie doppelt,
Den je sie erheben!

And those who come to grief at the hands of the gods, are not weak
passive creatures, but heaven-scaling Titans. This points to the
antipodal difference between the characters of these two poets, and
explains in part why Goethe did not succumb to the sickly sentimentalism
of which he rid himself in "Werther." The difference between yielding
and striving resulted in the difference between an acute case of
Weltschmerz in the one and a healthy physical and intellectual manhood
in the other.

Thus far it has been almost entirely the personal aspect of Hoelderlin's
Weltschmerz and its causes that has come under our notice. And since he
was a lyric poet, it is perhaps natural that the sorrows which concerned
him personally should find most frequent expression in his verse. But
notwithstanding the fact that this personal element is very prominen