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Also Sarah his wife; also Isaac, and near him Rebecca,
His faithful wife; there also rests Lea in peace.
Children, your father's prayer shall lead you to the eternal abode."
Fainting, Jehova's hero sank on his bed, 90
His breath came to a stillstand, his blessing hands slackened, His eye became
glassy, his blood thickened in the veins.
Now the weird darkness of death veils the sufferer.
Weeping the sons of hope surrounded the stiff skeleton.
Yet the purified spirit rose to the eternal heights, 95
Shining, even more shining in transfigurating brightness
Till at the throne of eternal love which he had loved here
And had yearned to see, he sees with speechless delight,
Where the soul's feeling joins in a single hallelujah."10
The poem meets Gundert's situation, for he had had to leave
his home ten months earlier and was striving for settling within
himself. An essay, written most probably at the end of 1827-
perhaps it was his first one written at Maulbronn, since it is given in
the beginning of his copy-book– shows the heading: “Aus den
Lebenserinnerungen eines Schwaben" (Pictures from the Memoirs
of a Suebian) and contains Gundert's description of his farewell from
the family in Stuttgart. In the essay Gundert writes: "A more serious
career should begin now; playing (also in learning) should come to
an end, studying should begin; he should come into new conditions
in which he can no longer take refuge to the parents' advice. "In this
context he was reminded of his taking leave from home: "It was the
last day at home. Would he ever come again, he would come as a
guest. These thoughts were haunting him through the last day and
in the last morning (18th of October) which was settled for the
farewell. He, however, did not want to soften mother any further
who anyhow was sensitive and sick; therefore he remained calm
and steady at the sick-bed for the last motherly admonition-calm
but touched at the last farewell with only a few words the mother dismised her son. “11
One year later, in August 1829, Gundert presented another,
even longer poem to his father, named "Der Krieg von Inisthona. Ein
Gedicht Ossians" (The War of Inisthona. A poem by Ossian). Ossian
was a Celtic poet of the third century A.D. His poems were collected
