Song of the Bell

In it, Schiller combines a knowledgeable technical description of a bellfounding with points of view and comments on human life, its possibilities and risks.

Fulgura frango", approximately translating as "I call the living, I mourn the dead, I repel lightning.

"[2] A look at the assembled form: The first stanza calls attention to the preliminary work which precedes the actual casting process.

Starting the casting: First a short prayer is recited and then a small amount of metal is poured into a depression in a warm rock.

When it has cooled it is broken apart and the size of the jagged teeth at the fractured surface reveals whether the melting process has come to an end or not.

Schiller takes as his theme the French Revolution of 1789 and criticizes the inhuman Jacobin excesses, "Where women turn into hyenas / And poke fun at horrors."

At a solemn meeting of the Royal Academy in Schiller Year 1859, Jacob Grimm praised "this incomparable poem, far superior to what other peoples can offer", and declared it to be a national symbol of unity [4]).

The late nineteenth century English author George Gissing encouraged his eighteen-year-old sister, Margaret, who was learning German at the time to read it in the original (as well as other works by Schiller).

Goethe wrote his epilogue to the "Song of the Bell" shortly after Schiller's death in order to have it read by the actress Amalie Becker at the conclusion of a memorial celebration in the Lauchstädt Theater [de].

In Hamburg the Bell was portrayed by local people in so-called living pictures on the occasion of the Schiller Year 1859.

Among the various music versions are Andreas Romberg: Das Lied von der Glocke, Op.

[citation needed] In the 19th century Schiller was read and honored not only by schoolteachers, but also by craftsmen and workers, as an initiator of national unity.

It was regarded as a treasury of sayings; well known collections list a large number of verses from the "Song of the Bell" which continue to be quoted today as part of the German cultural heritage, sometimes without awareness of the source.