Goethe’s epic poem in hexameters

affirms the universality of human experience as manifested in the historical, geographical, national, and cultural realities of the time of its composition. Written between September 1796 and June 1797, after the first phase of the French Revolution and nearly a decade before the battle of Jena-Auerstedt, which brought the Holy Roman Empire to an end, it is a product of Goethe’s “classical”, middle period — the time of his intense preoccupation with Greek antiquity as well as with current events. The heroic intention of this seemingly unheroic tale is expressed in its epic form — in six cantos, later rearranged into nine, headed by the names of the muses added to earlier, descriptive rubrics, the whole poem written in…

1625 words

Citation: Dye, Ellis. "Hermann und Dorothea". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 April 2013 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4774, accessed 23 November 2024.]

• View recommended reading for this article