Beyond the Lines: “Longing” in Schiller and Goethe

By David Gosselin

Friedrich Schiller and Johan Wolfgang Goethe stand out as two of the greatest poets in history. Both are celebrated as the fathers of German classicism, which they helped usher in with their scholarly collaborators, including the philosopher Johann Gottfried von Herder and the classical philologist Wilhelm von Humboldt. Schiller and Goethe also had many of their poetic works set to music by some of the greatest musical composers, including Schubert, Brahms, and Beethoven.

Goethe’s “Der Erlkönig,” “Gretchen am Spinnrade” and “Nähe des Geliebten” inspired some of Schubert’s most celebrated and impassioned songs. Schiller’s “Ode to Joy” supplied the lyrics for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony—one of the greatest musical works ever composed. In fact, the Ninth Symphony—inspired by Schiller’s poem—has on several occasions served as a universal anthem of freedom, including during the iconic 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall.

In the…