Johnstown High School - Spectator Yearbook (Johnstown, PA)

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German Llteratu re 1Cont1nuedl Latln and ltallan Literatu re younger than Goethe he was born rn 1759 dy1ng IH 1805 But rn thxs short t1me h gave to German lrterature 1ts greatest dramas Goethe and Schlller xxere drfferent ln almost ex ery respect Goethe xx as the son of a rxch man Schlller xxas the son of a poor army offxcer Goethe xxas Wlthout fmanclal xxorry but Schxller had a contmual struggle he recelved an mner freedom Whlch expresses rtself m all h1s works Por thxs reason h1s characters and h1s works have someth1ng subllme Sch1ller has wrxtten ballads and poems but h1s prrncxpal works are h1s dramas The most of them are h1stor1cal dramas of well known char acters Mane Stuart Dre ungfrau von Orleans and Wallensteln H15 most beloved drama 15 Wxlhelm Tell the story of Swmtzer land s struggle for freedom Through Schiller came somethmg new m German lxterature a lofty xdeallsm and a great love of freedom Wxl helm Tell has become famous through Rossml s opera wr1tten around the drama The study of the German tongue then has 1nf1n1tely more to offer the student than the mere drscxplme of grammar Zoe Hughes The purpose of a lrberal educatron IS not to f1ll the mmd xxrth brts of 1nformat1on wrse or otherxx 1se lt IS to create standards of taste by contact wlth the best ln any fleld to study the means and the methods by xxhxch masterpleces are created An lI1tQI'1SlV6 and cletalled study of any artrst s work xx hether 1t be the xxork of Mllton Dante Vxrgxl Raphael or Tlt13H xx1ll toughen the flber and purrfy the taste of ex en the most lackadalsrcal and sentlmental of xx ould be art1sts Why teach V1rg1l CICGIO Mrchelangelo Leonardo Lorenzo to youthful students? To create a standard of taste and to protect us from the bogus masterpreces of the mmor poets and the obscenltres mon stros1t1es deformltles of what passes rn the present day lnternatlonals under the name of art ClXlllZEd man adxances from xxhere he IS to xxhere he xx ould be by profntmg by the ga1ns of h1s c1x1l1zed forbears He does not klck the ladder erected by h1s prxmrtxxe ancestors out of the marshy lake up 1nto the sunlxght from beneath hrm He proflts by the efforts and ga1ns of the past Cxx 1l1zed art1sts do the same They knoxv that masterpneces sprlng out of the l1x es of the myrlads xxho make up the race not out of the sub conscrousness of the rsolated 1I1CllW1ClLlE1l Therefore man s accumulated gams rn the arts are not klcked asxde l1ke a useless ladder Thev are the solid foundatlons upon xx h1ch he erects h1s scaffoldlng Masterpleces 1n all the arts must be taught to students whrle qurte young To teach them how not to xx rxte not to compose not to pamt If more of our Elmor Wylles Cabells DFEISCIS had been d1sc1 pl1ned mstead of grossly flattered 1n youth had been set to analyze sound llterature had been set to track Colerldge to h1s la1r then h1s 1ntr1 , , . - 9 . . . , - . . Y . . v 7 ' a U y I , . 7 . . . Y . . V V ' 1 Y , - I ll 1 V' ll n YY ll 1 YY ' 7 Y ' ' a ll I I' l . V v . . . . v Q I ll 4 r - ' VV . .V . . . . . . . 7. . . . . V. . V . V , 7 . . . , . . V . 1 , V Y , . . . . 7. V V V V . . 7 . . . V 7 r . V V V , - Y Y - .. .. . U . VV V ' r ' ' 1 ' V 1 C L V , . .Y . 7 ' . V . . - ' . . V . . . 4 s 7 Y ' V 1 5 - , V 1 ' -

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Germany has a hterature xx hlch 19 as old as its hxstory If one seeks IH the museums of Germiny one fmds fragments of xery old books xx hlch date back almost to the time of Charles the Great A l1ter1turc xx hnch lg old must haxe manx treasures and the German llterature IS one of the r1chest IH the world Thelr greatest poet xx 'ls ohwnn Wolf qinq xon Goethe He ranks amonq the four greatest poets of all tlme Homer Dante Shakespeare and Goethe Germany s greatest lyrlc poet 1nd dramatlst and a popular nox ellst oddly enouqh he xx 'ls also 1 sci entlst a xx ell knovxn art cr1t1c and a philosopher Th1S mterestmq poet belonged not to one perlod but to sex eral for he hyed from the mlddle of the Eighteenth Century until somewhere 1nto the Nlneteenth Century Thus he experlenced many ex ents ln xxorld hlstory the French Rex olutlon the Amerlcan Reyolutlon and the rise and fall of Napoleon He also saw many changes IH llterature he hmm self g1xe the example for new 1deas and new forms Wlth Goethe the German hterature reached 1ts zenlth and thxs great per1od IS called the Classlcal Perlod Goethe lox ed the old folk sonqs of the earher llterature He h1m self wrote many such sonqs xxhlch are so mus1cal and natural that they are easlly sung Some of hls most well known poems are Der Erlkonlg Das Heldenroslem Der Flscher and Gefunden and Uberallen Grpfeln Ist Ruh Goethe s dramatic masterplece IS Faust Faust IS a long drama rn two parts upon whlch the poet worked for sxxty years When Goethe was a child he saw a puppet show of the old story of Doctor Faust Thxs puppet show made a great lmpressxon upon h1m and he used many parts of the old story ln hrs masterpnece but he changed the fundamental ldea Goethe s Doctor Faust made an agreement wlth the deyll Me phlstopheles The devnl was to let h1m experlence the most subhme happmess of the xxorld In return Faust prom1sed h1s soul The agree ment was sealed w1th blood In the agreement Faust prom1sed that if once a slngle moment of Joy would be so sweet to h1m that he would say Do stay you are so beauuful then the dev11 could have h1s soul Me phxstopheles changed the old Faust mto a handsome young man He let h1m enjoy the most supreme pleasures but the dev1l could never satlsfy h1m he xxas alxyays strlxlng further Whoever belongs to the educated people of the xxorld must be acqualnted xxlth Goethe s Faust Almost everyone has seen the opera Faust or at least has heard the mus1c of It Here 1n Amerlca xxe are well acquamted xxlth the famous opera Faust by the French composer Guonod Schlller 15 the greatest German poet after Goethe In front of 1 theater 1n Welmir IS a fimous monument of Germinys txxo qre1test poets Goethe and Sch1ller It exalts the beautlful frlendshlp of the txxo In Goethe s hand rests Schxller s hand and encxrclmg the hands of both IS a laurel wreath The monument stands ln Wexmar xxhere Goethe and Schiller l1x ed for years and xxhere they xx rote thelr best works They wlso dled 1n We1mar The world knoxxs Goethe much better than Schiller but Schlller his lonq been the fixorlte of the people If Schlller had not dled so eirly he xxould hwxe been renoxx ned ln vxorld l1ter'1ture Ten years German Literatu re . . . . . . I - 1 - . , c , - .1 . I n s C 7 . . 1 7 . .1 . 1 . , c . K V 1 G . . ff 1 K 1 1 C 1 . 1 , . . t c . 1 . 7 1 .- 1 , , , c . c . . . V 7 . . . 1 K 7 V t . 1 Y . 1 . 7 . 1 '-' 1 1 - 1 . . . 1 L , - . c , . , . . . . . . A , . 1 . , 1 . . rl . 11 Q - U rl . . 11 .1 , 11 11 11 .1 1 1 1 . . 11 1 . .1 . . rl 11 11 11 . 1 I - . .1 11 , 1 1 1 . 1 . . ,-1 V ... . V 1 1 - . , . ' I 1 an . 11 . . I I ' ' 1 . 1 7 . 1 , . . , 1 1. 11 Y V 11 11 1 1 . . . . V 1 V. 1 .1 11 1 1 1 - . . 1 . . c . f . c , .' c . 1 . ' c ,' . 1 . 1 . . 1 1 1 1 . . . 7 - 1 . . 1 1 V 7 . 1 ' ' . 1 . 'Q c 1 rf c ' . c - e L Y 1 K - 1 1 C 1 -

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cate xx1nd1ngs 1n h1s composltlon of Kubla Khan perhaps thelr com posrtxons haxled as masterpleces a generatlon ago would not so soon be pronounced the mere effus1ons of lrterature not based on l1fe but based on literature the kmd th1t by next year ls gone vxnth the wmd lt IS lust here thit teachers of M1lton and Vlrgxl and Dante are contr1but1ng to the artxstlc and llterary producuons of the age They at least can help lessen the output by teachmg that lrterature IS not the ef fortless outpourmgs of the v1x1d dreamer but the studled effort of the d1sc1pl1ned mmd and soul of an artlst They do not sprlng full grown from the m1nds of poets they are wrung drop by drop out of hrs agony The teach1ng of Vrrgrl lends ltself admlrably to the teachmg of how mtrlcate and art1f1c1al a thmg poetry IS as mtrlcate lndeed far more 1ntr1cate than the creat1on of a mosa1c Words are the llttle cubes of gold or aquamar1ne that go to make up the perfect pattern and must be as carefully lald to keep the lmage from blurring The xxorker ln mosalcs deals xvlth tanglbles the worker IH words with lntanglbles The teachmg of Vlfgll CITlph3SlZ6S the fact that poetry IS an art one of the most 1ntr1cate and profound of mans creatlons Language ltself IS a marvelous product of man s creatlxe power The weavlng of th1s language rnto patterns xx hlch are called poetry IS a problem more dlfflcult than compos1t1on of great mus1c because there must be not only sound but also sense To teach Vlfgll IS to teach that some themes are worthy or DOBII cal some are not Some meters are poetlc others barbarxc some words and lmages poet1c and others not ex en the gen1us of Shakespeare could make anvthmg of but pla1n prose So xt 15 w1th the teachmg of CICQYO the matter of all those who would conwmce Argument lb not a loosely constructed jumble of words but a reasoned bu1ld1ng up of a sequence of ld63S each xdea grounded 1n the one out of whlch lt sprxngs as flower to plant plant to root root to seed seed to sorl The analys1s of Cncero s xx ork wx1ll proxe that any well constructed speech can be subyected to rrgld analysts and that xt falls mto xts com ponent parts pomed by lI1XlS1bl6 threads as readxly as a 11g saw puzzle or as a problem ln mathematlcs under the clexer hand of a master of mathematlcs What a lesson for those xxho xxould haxe the prxze xvlthout the pams' The teacher of ltal1an fmds her fleld almost l1m1tless 1n her teach 1ng of the understand1ng and apprec1at1on of the xxhole fleld of art Thxs IS because nature has blessed no other natlon m art as she has the Italnan unless It be the Greek Whether 1t be language poetry pamt 1ng sculpture mosalc stamed glass archltecture mus1c the f1eld ns al most llmztless Poetry may be taught then rn the exqulslte poems of POllglEl1'l0 of Lorenzo of Tasso of Arxosto the appreclatlon of palntmgs ln the 1ncon1parable xxork of Leonardo Corregxo GIOFQIOHC the appreclatlon of the art of the mosaxc the wrt of the sculpture and archltecture then the numberless artxsts rn these fields xx ho haxe made Italy great Latin and Italian Llteratu re lCont1nuedl . . . . .. lr VV . , , . - 9 , - V . . . r. . . VV . 7 , 1 '1' c c . c c .' U , , ,-. , V . . . Y . . , , . V . . V . . . V . . V V - V - V V V I . - V V V t V V V V - . . V . A Y V r , - . . . V. . . .. - V V V . . Y . , , V . . . . Y . I ' r V - Y l v I I I 4 V V V . . V V V - v C r 1 '- ' . ' V , V V A .