realize (as did France also) the continual development of a healthy
language, though the ancients had glimpses of this; and they failed
(this in contrast to France) to comprehend the radical differences
between the various forms of literary composition. Therefore the
pre-classical period still left enough to be done by the classical.

It was Klopstock who accomplished the most; he created a new, a lofty
poetic language, which was to be recognized, not by the use of
conventional metaphors and swelling hyperboles, but by the direct
expression of a highly exalted mood. However, the danger of a forced
overstraining of the language was combatted by Christoph Martin
Wieland, who formed a new and elegant narrative prose on Greek,
French, and English models, and also introduced the same style into
poetic narrative, herein abetted by Friedrich von Hagedorn as his
predecessor and co-worker. Right on the threshold, then, of the great
new German literature another mixture of styles sprang up, and we see,
for example, Klopstock strangely transplanting his pathos into the
field of theoretical researches on grammar and metrics, and Wieland
not always keeping his irony aloof from the most solemn subjects. But
beside them stood Gotthold Ephraim Lessing who proved himself to be
the most thoughtful of the reformers of poetry, in that he emphasized
the divisions--especially necessary for the stylistic development of
German poetry--of literary categories and the arts. The most
far-reaching influence, however, was exercised by Herder, when he
preached that the actual foundation of all poetic treatment of
language was the individual style, and exemplified the real nature of
original style, i. e., inwardly-appropriate modes of expression, by
referring, on the one hand, to the poetry of the people and, on the
other, to Shakespeare or the Bible, the latter considered as a higher
type of popular poetry.