Such was really his intention, and he said so when he had a
portrait of Moerike put on the title-page of the songs. Whether the
reading of his poetry acted as a balm to Wolf's unquiet spirit, or
whether he became conscious of his genius for the first time when he
expressed this poetry in music, I do not know; but he felt deep
gratitude towards it, and wished to show it by beginning the first
volume with that fine and rather Beethoven-like song, _Der Genesende an
die Hoffnung_ ("The Convalescent's Ode to Hope").
The fifty-one _Lieder_ of the _Goethe-Liederbuch_ (1888-89) were
composed in groups of _Lieder_: the _Wilhelm Meister Lieder_, the
_Divan (Suleika) Lieder_, etc. Wolf even tried to identify himself with
the poet's line of thought; and in this we often find him in rivalry
with Schubert. He avoided using the poems in which he thought Schubert
had exactly conveyed the poet's meaning, as in _Geheimes_ and _An
Schwager Kronos_; but he told Mueller that there were times when Schubert
did not understand Goethe at all, because he concerned himself with
translating their general lyrical thought rather than with showing the
real nature of Goethe's characters.
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