ttention from the loud and boisterous street, rostrum, and salon
to the innermost recesses of the heart where woman's happiness secretly
dwells, and to the bosom of family life where the children enliven the
little world which is, after all, the great world in nucleo.

Foremost among the intellectual guardians of the noble traditions of old
German life was Annette von Droste-Hiilshoff. Simplicity and an ardent
religious feeling permeate her poetry, which she produced in abundance
in spite of many obstacles put in the way of her intellectual pursuits
by a prejudiced, bigoted, aristocratic family. Her poetry is rooted in
the desire to induce the new "stormers" to cling to the old and tried
German traditions of morality, faith, and patriarchal institutions.
"Cling to thy friend, cling to thy word, cling to thy faith, cling to
thyself," is her creed. "Who would exchange his blood for strange ichor
(even though it were the blood of the gods)! Do not reject the Cherub of
thy cradle; his wing will rustle to thee from every leaf! Do not suck
dry the blood of thy heart, to animate therewith a bastard of thy soul."

Next important in her noble mission is Betty Paoli (Elizabeth Glueck).
Her thesis was: Church and society, fame and honor are the proper domain
of man; woman can find her supreme happiness only in true, faithful,
pure love for one man, and only once in life. Betty Paoli writes: "God
has not sent me out, and has not given me the strength to aspire
gloriously with a consecrated hand for the palm of victory. Let him be
immortalized in marble and in brass who won them: I am nothing but a
heart that has loved much and suffered much; and all my poetry is but an
audible revelation of all the quiet pains of which a woman's soul is
capable." According to her it is woman's destiny to subject her life to
the magic charm of love, to sacrifice all her desires and inclinations
to love: "My proud head defied boldly the lightning of the storm; but
when thou saidst: 'I love thee!', I sank quiet and weeping at thy feet
How weak am I!" In reality her happiness in love was short; the beloved
one betrayed and deserted her; the deep sorrows of her heart find
eloquent expression in touching and passionate melodies.

Luise Hensel's poems are simple and melodious, and are filled with a
childlike humility. God and heaven are the motives of her song. There is
a long series of women poets and novelists, who are defenders of the old
faith, and w