![]() See also Memoirs of Frederick and Margaret Klopstock (English translation by Elizabeth Smith, London, 1808) and her correspondence with Samuel Richardson, published 1818. The poet subsequently published his wife's writings, Hinterlassene Werke von Margareta Klopstock (1759), which give evidence of a tender, sensitive and deeply religious spirit. His grief at her loss finds pathetic expression in the fifteenth canto of the Messias. His happiness was short, as she died in 1758, leaving him broken-hearted. ![]() She was the daughter of a Hamburg merchant and an enthusiastic admirer of his poetry. On his way to the Danish capital, Klopstock met in Hamburg the woman who later in 1754 became his wife, Margareta (Meta) Möller, the "Cidli" of his odes. Īt this juncture Klopstock received from Frederick V of Denmark, on the recommendation of his minister Count von Bernstorff (1712–1772), an invitation to settle in Copenhagen with an annuity of 400 thalers, in the hope that he would complete Der Messias there. Bodmer, however, was disappointed to find in the young poet of the Messias a man of strong worldly interests, and a coolness sprang up between the two men. For that reason he gladly accepted in 1750 an invitation from Bodmer, the translator of Paradise Lost, to visit him in Zürich, where Klopstock was initially treated with every kindness and respect and rapidly recovered his spirits. He left the university in 1748 and became a private tutor in the family of a relative at Langensalza, where unrequited love for a cousin (the "Fanny" of his odes) disturbed his peace of mind. In Leipzig he also wrote a number of odes, the best known of which is An meine Freunde (1747), afterwards recast as Wingolf (1767). ![]() ![]() Portrait of Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock circa 1779 by Jens JuelĪ new era in German literature had commenced, and the identity of the author soon became known. In this periodical the first three cantos of Der Messias were published anonymously in hexameter verse in 1748. Finding life at that university not to his liking, he transferred in the spring of 1746 to Leipzig, where he joined a circle of young men of letters who contributed to the Bremer Beiträge. On 21 September 1745 he delivered, on quitting school, a remarkable "departing oration" on epic poetry- Abschiedsrede über die epische Poesie, kultur- und literargeschichtlich erläutert-and next proceeded to Jena as a student of theology, where he drew up in prose the first three cantos of the Messias. While still at school, he had already drafted the plan of Der Messias on which most of his fame rests. His original intention of making Henry the Fowler the hero of an epic was abandoned in favor of a religious epic, under the influence of Milton's Paradise Lost, with which he became acquainted through Bodmer's translation. Here he soon became adept in Greek and Latin versification, and wrote some meritorious idylls and odes in German. In his thirteenth year, he returned to Quedlinburg and attended the gymnasium there, and in 1739 went on to the famous classical school named Schulpforta. Having been given more attention to his physical than to his mental development, he grew up strong and healthy and was considered an excellent horseman. ![]() Both in his birthplace and on the estate of Friedeburg on the Saale, which his father later rented, he spent a happy childhood. Klopstock was born at Quedlinburg, the eldest son of a lawyer. ![]()
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