He writes as if with the mind of the region’s peasant inhabitants. Few of them could have read these poems when they were published in 1803. But in the course of time they became as familiar to them as the Bible and their own folksongs, and nowadays the name Hebel is as meaningful to the people of the South-west corner of Germany, Alsace and Switzerland, where Alemannic is spoken, as Robbie Burns is to the Scots. And very soon he had a public among educated Alemannic speakers, and among Germans from other areas too, for whom he provided brief notes on vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. The volume was greeted enthusiastically by leading writers of the time, including Goethe. Jean Paul, an author whom Hebel greatly admired, declared that one could never tire of reading these poems over and over again. Contemporaries were impressed by the charm of poetry that breathed the spirit of a particular countryside; it seemed above all natural.

The dialect gave Hebel’s verses a unique vigour and freshness. Nevertheless he did not draw simply on folk tradition. The Alemannische Gedichte contain simple folksong-like strophes, but also more meditative and narrative pieces in blank verse and astonishingly convincing classical hexameters. Hebel transports his reader into the Wiese valley and the real details of its topography, not into a stylized Arcadia, and

escapes the conventions of idyllic verse. Yet the influence of one of his favourite poets, Theocritus, can still be felt as a major presence. Besides, he had no desire to deny the spirit of his age and his calling as pedagogue and clergyman. He wished to improve his readers, to nourish their feeling for nature, their moral sense and their religious faith. He fitted ghosts and will-o’-the-wisps into an optimistic Christian framework. One of his poems, ‘Der Statthalter von Schopfheim’, transfers the story of David, Nabal and Abigail into the Black Forest setting. Because his convictions were so secure he was never aggressively didactic. He could range easily from nature poetry to songs and dialogues and a frightening ballad, and allow himself a playful tone and a sense of humour. The dialect medium lent itself to the inclusion of proverbial and down-to-earth pieces of wisdom. Hebel knew that its speakers did not indulge in pathos. But the strength of his religious faith is expressed in one of the greatest poems on mortality in any language, ‘Die Vergänglichkeit’ (rendered as ‘Sic transit’ in Leonard Forster’s Penguin Book of German Verse). Here Hebel draws on memories of his mother’s death on the road to Hausen. In the poem a father tells his young son in simple and sober words that all things must pass, the whole world, even the familiar mountains, the river Wiese, the city of Basel and its seemingly permanent church of St Peter will one day be destroyed: all men must age and die, but those who act as conscience dictates will rise from the dead and be taken to the happier homeland up above. This moving piece has found a secure place in anthologies of German poetry.

Hebel did not think of himself as a poetic genius. Early on he realized that the verses he wrote as a child inspired by the German poets of the mid-eighteenth century were of no value. At the age of twenty-eight, on reading the Minnesänger, he had tried his hand at verses in Alemannic, but without success. His lack of poetic gifts seemed to be certain. Thirteen years later, however, inspiration had come, and with it general acclaim. The first, anonymous, edition of the Alemannische Gedichte was printed on a subscription basis and Hebel’s best friend from his time in Lörrach did valiant work collecting advance orders. Within a year, however, a second edition had appeared above the author’s name. Two more were published by 1808.