IN 1860, WHILE NIETZSCHE WAS A STUDENT at Schulpforta (and perhaps because of what he experienced in his schooldays), he wrote a sequence of poems entitled “In the Distance” (“In der Ferne”), the second of which moves from a Wertherian sense of constriction, via a nostalgic recollection of domestic harmony, to a melancholy realization of loss:

Around the same time, he wrote “Without a Homeland” (“Ohne Heimat”), a text that depicts, as Philip Grundlehner puts it, “a passionate selfemancipation from all restrictive boundaries,” and other poems bear the titles “Longing for Home” (“Heimweh”), “Departure” (“Abschied”), and “Despair (“Verzweiflung”). True, many of these texts lack sophistication, much in the way that Nietzsche's musical compositions are said to do, yet they possess a certain naïve vigor. Some later texts restate this theme of abandonment with considerable power. One of these is a famous poem from 1884, known under various titles, including “Isolated” (“Vereinsamt”), the final verse of which reads: