“In our time it has become customary to say that we live in a practical age, meaning by this something completely prosaic, even hostile to all poetry. The famous historian of German literature, Gerwinus, claims that for Germany poetry ended with Schiller and Goethe, that there was nothing more left for her to say, and that the era of practical action had arrived for the German nation1. Leaving aside the purely political view that led Gervinus to such a one-sided denial of ideal properties in the life of German society,2 one cannot help but admit that in general the educated classes of our time look at the word “poetry” not only with some kind of mistrust, but even with disdain, close to contempt, as empty, idle fun and chatter...”