Margaret Fuller’s Reading Worlds

WorkFriedrich Gottlieb Klopstock

Der Messias [The Messiah]

Der Messias [The Messiah] (1748-1773; English translation: The Messiah, tr. William Meeke, 1821)

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724–1803) · 1748-1773; English translation: The Messiah, tr. William Meeke, 1821

AnalyzedReadMentioned

Documented 1841

Books • Journals • Manuscripts

Selected engagements, in chronological order.

Totals count documented engagements, once at the earliest witness. How we count →

Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this work is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →

When Fuller engaged with this work

I. Childhood
II. Adolescence
III. Self-Directed
IV. Transcendentalist1record
V. New York
VI. Europe
✦. Memoirs (1852)
1810
1820
1832
1836
1844
1846
1850
1841—

The Dial

“Klopstock and Meta” · Vol. I, No. 3, January 1841, January 1841 · pp. 309?313
read
“Weak, fond wretch that I am! I, the bard of the Messiah! To what purpose have I nurtured my soul on the virtues of that sublime model, for whom no renunciation was too hard?”

Fuller, Margaret. Life Without and Life Within; or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and Poems. Edited by Arthur B. Fuller. Boston: Brown, Taggard and Chase, 1860.

Fuller’s footnote identifies Klopstock as "one of Germany’s most celebrated poets." The essay is a fictionalized account of Klopstock's grief following Meta's death.

Undated

Pieces with no legible date. They are part of the record but cannot be placed on the lifeline.

n.d.—

Journal 1833–1842

p3–p12
analyzed · readManuscript page
“I, the bard of Messiah – To what purpose have I nurtured my soul on the virtues of that sublime model.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Journal 1833–1842." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086 (83); Box 5 (83).

Inferred The character Klopstock calls himself 'the bard of Messiah' (p. 5), directly naming Klopstock's famous religious epic, Der Messias (first 3 cantos 1748; complete 1773). The reference to 'crown of his board and garnish of his dish' on p. 3 is likely a proverbial or literary echo describing a wife's role, not a direct quotation from Klopstock's text.

n.d.—

Plan for a Life of Goethe

p11, p16
analyzed · readManuscript page
“Influence of Klopstock [...] Klopstock scene between him & Cornelia.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Plan for a Life of Goethe." Houghton Library, Harvard University.

Inferred Fuller names Klopstock repeatedly and associates him specifically with hexameters and his major epic; Der Messias is the work that introduced German hexameters. Klopstock is named multiple times in the context of Goethe's childhood literary education.