Colloquium on English - Research Institute for Waldorf Education

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plane, need to strew pictures and figures of speech over the inadequacies of normal prose. How could you
express, “Oh, water lily, you blooming swan; Oh swan, you swimming lily!”? That is a metaphor. What is
expressed is neither a water lily, nor a swan; it floats between them. It cannot be expressed in prose, and the
same holds for figures of speech. However, it is possible to adequately express the supersensible without
using a picture or a figure of speech, as Goethe was sometimes able to do. In such cases, he did not use a
picture, and there you find the intuitive. You stand directly in the thing. That is so with Goethe and also
sometimes with Martin Greif. [Martin Greif is a pseudonym for Herman Frei (1839–1911).] They actually
achieve what we could objectively call lyric. Shakespeare also achieves it sometimes with the lyric poetry he
mixed into his drama. Faculty Meetings with Rudolf Steiner (753-757)
Twelfth Grade
A teacher: I would like to ask if we can define an order of presentation for art. I thought that I would begin
tomorrow in the ninth grade with those things connected with the curriculum as a whole, that is, related to
history and literary history. I want to show how art arose from mythology.
Dr. Steiner: It would be good to bring the art class into step with history and literary history. You could try
to make a transition from Germanic mythology to art and then remain with that for a time. Then, perhaps
you could show how the Germanic myths reappear in a different artistic form as aesthetics. You could
certainly show, for example, the connection between Dürer and German mythology. They are fifteen-yearold
children. You could use this as an occasion to show how the old Germans painted their gods just as
Dürer painted his figures later.
You could then go on into the tenth grade, since the curriculum depends upon the previous year. In
the tenth grade, we have Goethe’s poems and style, and that can stay. In the eleventh grade, summarize
music and poetry.
Dr. Steiner confirms the teacher’s understanding about art instruction in the previous grades. The same teacher
now proposes artistically treating what is done in the twelfth grade German class, literature beginning in 1740,
in preparation for the final examination.
Dr. Steiner: Then, we would no longer need a special literary history class. We need to see to it that the
students learn the things they may be asked. In connection with modern literary history, they will certainly
be asked about things that began with Gottsched and Bodmer and what followed them. German and art
class can certainly cover the same material.
In order not to make compromises, I think it would be good to recognize that a large number of
Goethe’s works are based upon impressions of paintings, and also that we can trace back much romantic art
to musical impressions. Try to develop how the arts are intertwined.
An essay by Burdach, “Schiller’s Chordrama und die Geburt des tragischen Stiles aus der Musik” (Schiller’s choral
drama and the birth of the tragic style from music) in the Deutschen Rundschau (German review) is mentioned.
Dr. Steiner: Burdach’s research has a problem in that it has an underlying tendency. He wants to show that
somehow certain themes arise out of some primal forces, and then he follows them further. This is really
very contrived. Schiller was certainly not as dependent upon earlier streams as Burdach claims. We certainly
cannot ignore Schiller’s dramatic experimentation and the fact that he created a choral drama after many
attempts. In Demetrius, he created a romantic drama in a style much like Shakespeare’s. You cannot ignore