Lenau, Autograph manuscript of the poem "An Natalie", c.1837?

LENAU, NIKOLAUS

Autograph manuscript of the poem "An Natalie"

THE COMPLETE POEM IN SEVEN STROPHES, with autograph title ("An Natalie, / die Wittwe meines Freundes Fr. Kleyle"), beginning "Nach einem heftigen Gewitter", with one cancellation

...Nach einem heftigen Gewitter

  Wandl' ich allein im tiefen Haine,

  Und blicke durch das nasse Gitter

  Der Blätter auf zum Sternenscheine.

 Die sturmesmüden Bäume schweigen,

  Nur manchmal rauschen Windeshauche,

  Wie eine Mahnung, in den Zweigen,

  Dann tropft es nach im dunkeln Strauche...

2 pages, 4to (22 x 17.3cm), name added at end in another hand ("Nicolaus Lenau"), no place or date [c.1837?], traces of mount to verso, old repair to horizontal fold

The addressee of the poem was Natalie Kleyle, widow of Lenau's friend Friedrich ("Fritz") Kleyle (1799-1836). The poem was published in the 1838 volume Neuere Gedichte, a collection which demonstrates 'close ties to the Weltschmerz (“World Pain”) mood of the Romantic period and reveal[s] a personal, almost religious relationship to nature'.

LITERATURE:

Nikolaus Lenau, Sämtliche Werke und Briefe, vol.1 (Leipzig and Frankfurt, 1970), pp. 304-305.