- fication in a distich, which he intentionally
made even worse than the worst of theirs, using the words with a wrong accentuation:
"In´ Weimar und´ in Jena´
macht man´ Hexa´meter wie´ der;
A´ber die Pen´tameter´
sind´ doch noch ex´cellenter´!"
]In´ Weimar and´ in Jena´
they make´ hexame´ters such as´ this
But´ the Pen´tameters´
are´ even more´ excellent´.]
In spite of some awkwardness and lack of elegance in diction, the Xenions became very popular in Germany on account of the profound ideas embodied in many of them. The shortcomings of their form have been forgotten on account of their intrinsic value, and there is perhaps no poetry quoted more frequently than these pithy aphorisms. They have become household words in Germany and deserve a place of honor in the literature of the world.
