Hamerling

Hamerling, ROBERT, Austrian poet, was born of poor parents at Kirchberg in the Forest, in Lower Austria, on 24th March 1830. Having completed his studies at Vienna, Hamerling became a teacher in the gymnasium at Trieste in 1855. But at the end of eleven years of work, ill-health compelled him to retire. From that time down to the date of his death, on 13th July 1889, he lived at Gratz, almost entirely confined to his bed, but nevertheless leading a busy life as a writer of poetry. He began his career by the publication in 1860 of a volume of lyrics, Sinnen und Minnen (7th ed. 1886; each edition enlarged and improved). His lyric talent found expression also in such later works as Das Schwanenlied der Romantik (1862), Amor und Psyche (1882), and Blätter im Winde (1887). But his best books are three satirical epics—Ahasver in Rom (1866; 17th ed. 1889), Der König von Sion (1869), and Homunculus (1888). In these books his theme is the problems that are knit about the inner nature of man, his mundane existence, and the institutions his mind has conceived and his hand has made. The structural conceptions are often grand, and the imagination bold; the emotional and descriptive colouring is both rich and truthful, the action vigorous, the philosophy ultra-modern; and there is a firm grasp of details, and a patient and clever use of them, mostly for satiric purposes. Satire is indeed one of the strongest elements in these epics. Hamerling's remaining works include Venus im Exil (1858); Germanenzug (1864), a translation of Leopardi's poems (1865); a novel, Aspasia (1875); a tragedy, Danton und Robespierre (1871); two or three other dramatic pieces; Die sieben Todsünden (1873); an autobiographical work, Stationen meiner Lebenspilgerschaft (1886); Lehrjahre der Liebe (Letters, &c. 1889). Sämtliche Werke (Hamburg, 1889). See Life by A. Polzer (1889).