With all their clamor for political upheavals, the “Stuermer und Draenger” never arrived at any serious or practical plan of action.  Notwithstanding all this, the word Vaterland was always an inspiration to Hoelderlin, and it is especially gratifying to note that the calumny which he heaps upon the devoted heads of the Germans is not his last word on the subject.  Nor did he ever lose sight of his lofty ideal of liberty for his degraded fatherland or cease to hope for its realization.  In this strain he concludes the “Hymne an die Freiheit” (1790) with a splendid outburst of patriotic enthusiasm: 

    Dann am suessen, heisserrung’nen Ziele,
    Wenn der Ernte grosser Tag beginnt,
    Wenn veroedet die Tyrannenstuehle,
    Die Tyrannenknechte Moder sind,
    Wenn im Heldenbunde meiner Brueder
    Deutsches Blut und deutsche Liebe glueht,
    Dann, O Himmelstochter! sing ich wieder,
    Singe sterbend dir das letzte Lied.[50]

What a remarkable change is noticeable in the tone which the poet assumes toward his country in the lines “Gesang des Deutschen,” written in 1799, probably after the completion of his “Hyperion”: 

    O heilig Herz der Voelker, O Vaterland! 
    Allduldend gleich der schweigenden Muttererd’
    Und allverkannt, wenn schon aus deiner
    Tiefe die Fremden ihr Bestes haben.

    Du Land des hohen, ernsteren Genius! 
    Du Land der Liebe! bin ich der Deine schon,
    Oft zuernt’ ich weinend, dass du immer
    Bloede die eigene Seele leugnest.[51]

How much the reproach has been softened, and with what tender regard he strives to mollify his former bitterness!  To this change in his feelings, his sojourn in strange places and the attendant discouragements and disappointments seem to have contributed not a little, for in the poem “Rueckkehr in die Heimat,” written in 1800, the contempt of “Hyperion” has been replaced by compassion.  He sees himself and his country linked together in the sacred companionship of suffering, consequently it can no longer be the object of his scorn.

    Wie lange ist’s, O wie lange! des Kindes Ruh’
    Ist hin, und hin ist Jugend, und Lieb’ und Glueck,
    Doch du, mein Vaterland! du heilig
    Duldendes! siehe, du bist geblieben.[52]

But the fact remains, nevertheless, that Hoelderlin from his early youth felt himself a stranger in his own land and among his own people.  Some of the causes of this circumstance have already been discussed.  The fact itself is important because it establishes the connection between his Weltschmerz and his most noteworthy characteristic as a poet, namely, his Hellenism.  No other German poet has allowed himself to be so completely dominated by the Greek idea as did Hoelderlin.  And in his case it may properly be called a symptom of his Weltschmerz, for it marks his flight from the world of stern reality into an imaginary world of Greek ideals.  An imaginary Greek world, because in spite of his Hellenic enthusiasm he entertained some of the most un-Hellenic ideas and feelings.