Ewald Christian Von Kleist - Poetry

Poetry

Kleist's chief work is a poem in hexameters, Der Frühling (1749), for which Thomson's Seasons largely supplied ideas. It earned him the nickname "the Poet of the Spring." In his description of the beauties of nature Kleist shows real poetical genius, an almost modern sentiment and fine taste. He also wrote some charming odes, idylls and elegies, and a small epic poem Cissides und Paches (1759), the subject being two Thessalian friends who die an heroic death for their country in a battle against the Athenians. Likewise he composed epitaphs for his many friends who were killed in battle, such as Major Heinrich von Blumenthal:

Witz, Einsicht, Wissenschaft, Geschmack, Bescheidenheit,
und Menschenlieb und Tapferkeit,
und alle Tugenden vereint mit allen Gaben besass der, den man hier begraben.
Er starb für's Vaterland
er starb mit Heldenmuth.
Ihr Winde wehet sanft,
die heilige Asche ruht.
(Wit, perception, learning, taste, modesty, and kindliness and courage, and all virtues united with all gifts, had he who lies here buried. He died for the Fatherland, he died with heroic courage. Ye winds sough softly, the holy ashes are at rest.)

Kleist published in 1756 the first collection of his Gedichte, which was followed by a second in 1758. After his death his friend Karl Wilhelm Ramler published an edition of Kleist's Sämtliche Werke in 2 vols (1760). A critical edition was published by August Sauer, in 3 vols (1880–1882). See also Arthur Chuquet, De Ewaldi Kleistii vita et scriptis (Paris, 1887), and Heinrich Pröhle, Friedrich der Grosse und die deutsche Literatur (1872).