Hymnen an die Nacht

Hymnen an die Nacht, a work composed of 6 hymns (see Hymne) written in 1799 by Novalis. They constitute a homogeneous work and are Novalis's poetic response to the emotional crisis of 1797 provoked by the deaths of his fiancée Sophie von Kühn and his brother Erasmus. Night is here the symbol for death, in which the spiritual union with his lost bride will take place. The first three hymns are written in ecstatic prose, the fourth ends with a poetic coda, and the fifth contains two poems. The sixth and last is a strophic hymn in rhyming verse, entitled ‘Sehnsucht nach dem Tode’.