Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock

born July 2, 1724, Quedlinburg,
Saxony [Germany]
died March 14, 1803, Hamburg
German epic and lyric poet whose
subjective vision marked a break with
the rationalism that had dominated
German literature in the early 18th
century.
Klopstock was educated at
Schulpforta, a prestigious Protestant
boarding school, where he read John
Milton’s Paradise Lost in the
translation by the influential Swiss
critic Johann Jakob Bodmer. That
experience prompted Klopstock to begin
planning a great religious epic poem. In
1749 the first three cantos of his Der
Messias (The Messiah), written in
unrhymed hexameters, appeared in the
Bremer Beiträge and created a sensation.
To fulfill what he considered his
poetic mission, Klopstock left his
studies at the University of Leipzig and
became a private tutor at Langensalza,
Thuringia. There he fell in love with a
cousin, the “Fanny” of his odes.
Disappointed in romance, he went to
Zürich (1750), staying for six months
with Bodmer.
An invitation and an annuity from
Frederick V of Denmark took him to
Copenhagen, where he remained for 20
years. While there Klopstock composed
historical plays dealing with the
ancient Germanic hero Arminius. In 1754
he married Margarethe (Meta) Moller of
Hamburg, who was the “Cidli” of his
odes. Grief over her early death
affected his creativity. A collection of
his Oden (“Odes”) was published in 1771.
In 1770 he retired to Hamburg, where the
last five cantos of Der Messias were
produced with waning inspiration three
years later. In 1791 he married Johanna
Elisabeth von Winthem, his first wife’s
niece and a close friend for many years.
Although widely known as the author
of Der Messias—the work was translated
into 17 languages—Klopstock established
his reputation chiefly as a lyric poet.
The free verse forms he used in his
hymnlike odes permitted a more natural
and expressive use of language.