R.E. Slater - Poetic Variations on a Theme

Two Egyptian Porphyry Vases. The Cataracts of the Nile and the Ruins of Thebes
(Zwey Ägyptische Porphyr Vasen. Die Cataracten des Nilus und die Ruinen von Theben).
From Entwurf einer historischen Architektur ("A Plan of Historical Architecture")

Two Egyptian Porphyry Vases

From Entwurf einer historischen Architektur

("A Plan of Historical Architecture")

by R.E. Slater & ChatGPT 5.2

What endures is not what conquers,

but what learns to remain,

to participate in meaning,

and learn identity.

---

Introduction

The engraving commonly titled "Two Egyptian Porphyry Vases" (also captioned, Zwey Ägyptische Porphyr Vasen. Die Cataracten des Nilus und die Ruinen von Theben; translated: "Two Egyptian Porphyry Vases. The Cataracts of the Nile and the Ruins of Thebes.") is a representative example of late eighteenth‑century neoclassical visual culture. Produced as part of the architectural compendium Entwurf einer historischen Architektur ("A Plan of Historical Architecture"), the image occupies a space between archaeology, architectural pedagogy, and philosophical reflection on history. It does not merely document ancient artifacts; rather, it constructs a vision of antiquity shaped by Enlightenment ideals of order, reason, and continuity.

This essay situates the engraving within its historical, intellectual, and artistic contexts, examining how objects, landscape, and human figures collaborate to articulate a neoclassical philosophy of history - one that continues to inform modern aesthetics and institutional symbolism.

---

Historical Context: Enlightenment Historicism and Architecture

During the late eighteenth century, European intellectual life was marked by an intense engagement with history as a systematic and comparative discipline. Architecture, in particular, became a privileged medium through which historical knowledge could be organized and transmitted. Pattern books and architectural atlases proliferated, offering engraved plates that cataloged buildings, ornaments, and artifacts from across civilizations.

Georg Christian Freundt's book, Entwurf einer historischen Architektur, belongs squarely within this tradition. Meant to be a historical survey of architectural orders, decorative motifs, and structural precedents it presents Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and later European forms, which are assembled into a visual archive intended to educate taste and guide contemporary practice.

Within the Freundt's compendium is included engraved plates of artifacts, urns, vases, and ornamental objects from past ancient civilizations. The engraving of the two porphyry vases reflects this ambition: to isolate exemplary objects while embedding them within a carefully staged historical landscape.

*Neoclassicism was a Western European cultural movement, prominent in the 18th and early 19th centuries, that revived the art, architecture, and ideals of classical antiquity (ancient Greece, Rome, and Egypt) as a reaction against the emotion of the Baroque and Rococo periods, emphasizing order, logic, simplicity, clarity, and moral themes, reflecting Enlightenment values. It is manifested in literature, visual arts (painting, sculpture, architecture) with clean lines, balanced compositions, and historical/mythological subjects, and even in music, seeking rational beauty and civic virtue.  

---

Egypt as Origin and Authority

In the eighteenth‑century European imagination, Egypt functioned as both historical origin and symbolic foundation. Long before the advent of modern Egyptology, Egypt as a land and a culture, was re-imagined through classical authors, biblical narratives, travelers’ reports, and artistic speculation. It was believed to be the cradle of architecture, geometry, and sacred knowledge.

The urn engraving capitalizes on this perception. The ruins of Thebes and the cataracts of the Nile do not aim at topographical accuracy; instead, they evoke a mythic Egypt - a place of monumental beginnings. By situating the vases within this setting, the image asserts Egyptian material culture as a source of enduring authority, preceding and legitimizing later architectural traditions.

*The Ruins of Thebes - Thebes, once the monumental capital of ancient Egypt during the Middle (c. 2040 - 1750 BCE) and New Kingdom (c. 1550 - 1070 BCE) periods, is today known through its vast and evocative ruins spread along the east and west banks of the Nile near modern Luxor. Temples, pylons, colossi, and tomb complexes - most notably Karnak and Luxor - testify to centuries of religious, political, and architectural ambition. In antiquity and later European imagination, the ruins of Thebes came to symbolize both the zenith of imperial order and the inevitability of decline, standing as enduring witnesses to humanity’s attempt to render permanence from stone within a world governed by time. 

*The Cataracts of the Nile -  The Nile River contains several stretches of powerful, fast-flowing rapids known historically as the (Six) Cataracts of the Nile, formed where the river passes over shallow beds of granite and broken rock, creating strong currents, islets, and turbulent channels. Concentrated primarily in southern Egypt and Sudan, these cataracts long served as natural boundaries and serious navigational hazards in antiquity, shaping trade routes, political frontiers, and cultural exchange along the river. In the ancient imagination, the cataracts symbolized both the life-giving force and untamed power of the Nile - locations where order yielded briefly to chaos before the river resumed its steady, sustaining flow.

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Nero's Red Porphyry Stone Tub in the Vatican

Porphyry and the Politics of Material

The choice of porphyry is significant. In antiquity, porphyry was among the most valued stones, prized for its durability, rarity, and imperial associations. Roman emperors reserved it for monuments, sarcophagi, and symbols of sovereign power. In neoclassical representation, porphyry thus functioned as a visual shorthand for permanence and legitimacy.

By depicting Egyptian vases carved from porphyry, the engraving subtly aligns Egyptian civilization with imperial continuity. The material bridges temporal gaps, suggesting an unbroken lineage of authority from ancient Egypt through Rome and into modern Europe. The vases become more than decorative objects; they serve as material witnesses to civilizational endurance.

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Composition and Visual Order

The composition of the engraving reflects neoclassical ideals of balance, clarity, and rational order. The two vases flank the scene, anchoring the foreground with monumental weight. Their differing forms - one more elaborately ornamented, the other more vertically restrained - invite comparison without disrupting symmetry.

Between them unfolds a layered spatial recession: terrace, cascading water, middle‑distance ruins, and distant horizon. This ordered progression mirrors Enlightenment conceptions of history as intelligible and structured rather than chaotic. Even ruin is rendered legible, subordinated to compositional harmony.

---

Human Figures and Enlightenment Spectatorship

The inclusion of seated human figures introduces a crucial interpretive dimension. These figures are not laborers or worshippers but observers and interlocutors. One gestures toward the ruins, directing attention and modeling interpretation.

They function as stand‑ins for the viewer - embodying Enlightenment ideals of contemplation, instruction, and rational discourse. Antiquity is not encountered as an overwhelming or mystical force but as something to be studied, discussed, and understood. The past becomes accessible through reasoned observation.

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Engraving Technique and Reproducibility

The plate is executed as a copper engraving, the dominant medium for architectural illustration in the period. Fine cross‑hatching creates tonal depth, while precise line work ensures clarity when printed at varying scales.

This technical precision served an epistemic purpose. Engravings were designed for circulation, study, and reuse. Their reproducibility allowed images like Two Egyptian Porphyry Vases to shape architectural education far beyond the original publication, embedding a standardized vision of antiquity into European visual culture.

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Between Archaeology and Imagination

From a modern perspective, the engraving occupies an ambiguous position between documentation and invention. It predates systematic archaeological excavation and therefore reflects conjectural reconstructions rather than empirical accuracy. Yet this imaginative quality is not a flaw within its original context.

For neoclassical audiences, the goal was not faithful reconstruction but historical coherence. The engraving synthesizes fragments - objects, ruins, landscape - into a persuasive narrative of origin and continuity. It presents history not as a series of ruptures but as a harmonized whole.

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Modern Afterlife and Cultural Persistence

Because Entwurf einer historischen Architektur entered the public domain and circulated widely, its images became detached from their original scholarly framework. Plates like Two Egyptian Porphyry Vases reappeared as decorative prints, educational illustrations, and later as set dressing in film and television.

FYI. The appearance of the engraving in President Siebert’s office on The Big Bang Theory TV show exemplifies academic seriousness, institutional authority, and historical depth - qualities still culturally associated with neoclassical imagery.

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Conclusion

Two Egyptian Porphyry Vases is not merely an image of ancient artifacts; it is a visual philosophy of history. Through material symbolism, compositional order, and Enlightenment spectatorship, the engraving articulates a vision in which the past is stable, instructive, and aesthetically unified.

Its continued resonance demonstrates how neoclassical representations of antiquity have shaped modern assumptions about knowledge, authority, and tradition. Even when encountered casually - as in a TV screen as a set-piece hung on a wall behind a desk - the engraving carries with it centuries of intellectual aspiration, quietly affirming the enduring power of historical imagination.

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Select Bibliography

• Rykwert, Joseph. The First Moderns: The Architects of the Eighteenth Century. MIT Press.

• Vidler, Anthony. The Writing of the Walls. Princeton Architectural Press.

• Marchand, Suzanne. Down from Olympus: Archaeology and Philhellenism in Germany. Princeton University Press.

• Haskell, Francis. History and Its Images. Yale University Press.

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POETIC VARIATIONS ON A THEME

Two Egyptian Vases

Two heavy, red stone vases, stand

as monuments to time’s passage,

each framing a once great, now ruined,

empire, flown away as water on a river.

These mighty ruins had marked

a younger time, now grown old,

lying upon a river older than history,

remembered as lessons to the living.

That humanity lives and dies -

its purchase of time flows uneven

like water between sky and stone,

with no strength to remain.

So civilizations come and go.

They shape. They mold.

They listen to the past,

to pass away incomplete.

by R.E. Slater
January 1, 2026
@copyright R.E. Slater Publications
all rights reserved

The ruins of Thebes before one of the Nile's cataracts

Silent Witnesses

We were not made to speak,
but to wait, watch, and listen.
Before your questions,
before words are spoken,

we first learned stillness.

Our red stone stand silent,

we waits without urgency,

watching rivers forget their shapes,

the mighty come and go,

and gods change their grammar.

Carved as ornate stone vases,

we are mute in our duties,

watching, remaining, silent -

touched by human eyes,

pondering our meaning.

by R.E. Slater
January 1, 2026
@copyright R.E. Slater Publications
all rights reserved

Giza Pyramids and Sphinx Engraved: An 18th-Century Egyptian Vista, 1782

Stillness as Becoming

Though we vases are unmoving,
we are events extended in time -
Porphyry is not frozen identity,
but pressure remembering itself,
held by matter agreeing to cohere,

for a time, for a little while longer.

The moving river below us is not

our opposite in its turbulence,

but our daily, steady companion -

for form and flow are not rivals;
but alternating, constructed stories
in the same cosmic sentence.

The ruins behind us are not failures.
They were once processes completed,
released for duty, function, and flair.
Nothing around us escapes becoming -
not stone, not water, nor even memory.

Our witness are not to permanence,

but to the faithfulness of our being;
remaining as we are long enough

to offer ourselves to what comes next.

For even stillness participates in living.

by R.E. Slater
January 1, 2026
@copyright R.E. Slater Publications
all rights reserved

From Alexandria to the Second Cataract

What Remains

Not the river,
though it keeps returning.

Not the stone,

though it learned how to wait.

Not the city,

which mistook duration for destiny.

What remains
is the space where we each have met -

in the pause where form did not resist change,
and change did not rush to erase form.

Here, weight became listening,
motion learned reverence.

We vases did not survive history;
we participated in history -
holding together just long enough
for memory to find a shape.

Nothing ever lies finished -
Even ruin continues its work.
Even stillness overcomes.

And we explorers,
arriving late in time,
stand briefly our watches,
looking longer than we expected -
becoming part of life's interval too.

So the old world continues apace:
not by triumph, but by balance;
not by certainty, but by offering shape
to whatever comes after us.


by R.E. Slater
January 1, 2026
@copyright R.E. Slater Publications
all rights reserved

The Hypaethral Temple at Phila called The Bed of Pharaoh

 Land, a coloured lithograph

The Persistence of Relation

(a processual version)

"Two Egyptian Red Porphyry Vases"

are not substances preserved against time;
but evidential societies of occasions
having achieved sufficient coherence
to endure, to last, to become witnesses.

Nor is red porphyry-stone mere inert matter,
but become patterned experiences

formed of pressure once long ago,

by heat, and mineral memory -
to be concresced into

form and function,

beauty and art, and

repeatedly renewed in its relation

to the becoming world and viewer.

Nor is the river below mere flux;
it is endless creativity ever in motion -
a primordial advance against time
refusing finality.

Nor do the stoned ruins signify decay -
but completed occasions,
their subjective aims being fulfilled,
their objective immortality
proceeding ever forward as influence.

Nothing in Freundt's engraving stands alone.
Each element prehends the others:
 - stone feels water,
 - water shapes ruin,
 - ruin instructs the eye,
 - even the eye becomes part of the event.

Nor is God absent here -
not as perceived coercive Designer,
but as enduring Lure towards harmony,
whose persuasive aim
 - that invites stone to hold,
 - rivers to flow,
 - and history to become
without demanding permanence.

What remains, then,
is not cold, rigid, stasis -
but faithful repetition
as the restless capacity of a world;
which gathers multiplicity

into momentary order,
then releases it again
forwards to further plurality

in ceaseless cycles of evolving.

And finally, neither

does the engraving show eternity.
Rather, it demonstrates it -
 - as relational endurance,
 - as timeless beauty surviving,
 - not by completing a story,

 - but by ever moving with story,

everlastingly.

by R.E. Slater
January 1, 2026
@copyright R.E. Slater Publications
all rights reserved

Ruins of the Palace of the Emperor Diocletian
at Spalatro in Dalamatia, along the Adriatic coast
of modern-day Croatia, 1764

Grammars of Absence

Grammars of Absence

Poetic lyrics to unrequited love

by R.E. Slater

We did not fail at love.
Love failed to find a place
where it was allowed
to live.

.

.

.

I learned devotion

by standing still
while happiness
passed me by.

.

.

.

Your absence

became my companion -
the only one
who stayed.

.

.

.

We spoke of weather,

and other safe subjects,
while our hearts
stood outside in the cold.

.

.

.

To love you
did not take courage -
it was endurance
without witness.

.

.

.

What you never knew of me
grew larger
than what you did.

.

.

.

I asked nothing of you

as love learned restraint
the way a body learns
to limp.

.

.

.

I mistook patience

for hope,
and carried it
too far.

.

.

.

Even now

my joy pauses
to see if you
might arrive.

.

.

.

We parted politely.

Love stayed behind,
uncertain
what to do next.

.

.

.

Your name

became a quiet room
that I learned not
to enter.

.

.

.

Some loves are never lived -

they are bourne,
like the weather,
no one remembers predicting.

R.E. Slater

December 17, 2025

@copyright R.E. Slater Publications
all rights reserved

Unentered Rooms

There are rooms in my heart
where I pass each day
fearing to open,
Doors polished by hesitation,

left shut;
handles warmed by my hand,
but never tested.

In each room lives your name,

set lightly on a table
in gathering dust

and afternoon light,
undisturbed, and unforgiven.

There I learned to hope
by keeping still -
listening to your footsteps
stopping occasionally outside,

but never crossing any threshold.

Some lives are lived this way:
not by what we lose,
but by what remains intact,
waiting breathless, in hope,
unrequited, unentered.

R.E. Slater
December 17, 2025

@copyright R.E. Slater Publications
all rights reserved

Fragments of Love

We did not speak of love.

It would have asked for more

than our worlds could allow.

So we learned other skills:

to wait without hope;

to leave liaisons as we found them;

to call wistfulness by gentler names.

What was never given

could not be taken away.

And yet, the heart remembers

the touch of the hand,

the look of the eye,

the lightness of one's voice,

and distance which gapped

between us.


R.E. Slater
December 17, 2025

@copyright R.E. Slater Publications
all rights reserved

Johann Martin Miller - Siegwart: eine Klostergeschichte

Amazon link

Siegwart: eine Klostergeschichte

by Johann Martin Miller

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Zenodot Verlagsgesellscha

Publication date ‏ : ‎ 14 Feb. 2014

Language ‏ : ‎ German

Print length ‏ : ‎ 430 pages

ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 3843043396

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-3843043397

Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 14.81 x 2.44 x 21.01 cm

Poems to Victoria

What we were allowed was only longing -

and even that was to be bourne alone.

I have loved you

as one loves something

one may never possess.

I did not lose you -

I was never allowed

to keep you.

And yet, my heart

learned your name

as if it were a wound.

We loved each other

without permission.

That was our sin.

We loved each other briefly,

to pay for it the rest of our lives.

by R.E. Slater
December 16, 2025
[either originals, or a paraphrase
from film, Victoria, stanza #2]
@copyright R.E. Slater Publications
all rights reserved

German theologian and writer, Johann Martin Miller

Siegwart: eine Klostergeschichte (Siegwart: A Monastery Story) is a famous sentimental novel written by Johann Martin Miller. It was published in 1776 and, similar to Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther, became a bestseller of its time.

The narrative follows the life of the pious and deeply emotional Siegwart, who is placed in a monastery by his family. The novel weaves together two distinct love stories that contrast happy virtue with tragic passion:

• The Happy Arc: Siegwart falls in love with a virtuous young woman named Marianne. Their relationship is portrayed as a model of pure, moral, and religiously sanctioned love.

• The Tragic Arc: This involves the story of another character, a beautiful but unhappily married woman whose despair over a lost love ultimately leads to her death.

Miller intended the book to be a moral guide and a source of solace ("Trostschrift") dedicated to "all noble souls." Unlike Werther, which ends in suicide and social critique, Siegwart emphasizes themes of Christian virtue, emotional purity, and the pursuit of a morally correct life within the constraints of society and faith, concluding with virtue rewarded rather than tragedy. It resonated deeply with the contemporary audience's appetite for intense emotional expression.

Content and Features

• Genre: The novel is a significant work of sentimental literature in Germany, which is characterized by the depiction of strong emotions and moral questions.

• Plot: It tells two parallel love stories, one of which ends happily and the other tragically. The plot is shaped by emotional entanglements and the moral decisions of the characters within a monastic setting.

• Reception: The book was dedicated to "all noble souls" and became a sensation following *the Werther fever, making it an important source for understanding Southern German culture and literary taste of that era.

• Style: It is a novel of solace (Trostschrift), often considered a rich source of contemporary observations.

The book was published in several parts and often includes copperplate engravings. You can find various editions of the novel through online booksellers, such as Amazon.com.

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Victoria (a 2013 Norwegian drama)

A tragic love affair between Victoria and Johannes. She's a daughter of a rich estate owner and he's the son of the local miller. Despite the deep love between them, her father makes Victoria abandon Johannes for the richer Otto.

IMDb info

The 2013 Norwegian film, Victoria, directed by Torun Lian, may be considered very relevant to the sentimental novels Siegwart and Werther, capturing the intense, emotionally fraught atmosphere of unrequited love.

The film is a direct adaptation of the 1889 novel of the same name by the acclaimed Norwegian author and Nobel laureate Knut Hamsun. Hamsun's novel shares the core themes of Miller and Goethe's works:

• Social Class Barriers: The central conflict in Victoria is the tragic love story between Johannes, a miller's son (similar to the lower status of Werther), and Victoria, the daughter of a wealthy and strict estate owner (the inaccessible beloved).

• Unrequited/Doomed Love: Their love is doomed from the start due to societal expectations and parental interference. Both characters sacrifice their happiness in silent obedience to duty and circumstance.

• Melodrama and Sentimentality: The narrative is steeped in the melancholic, passionate, and often heart-wrenching emotional style characteristic of 19th-century and late 18th-century sentimental literature.

• Tragic Ending: Like Werther and the tragic arc in Siegwart, the story culminates in profound loss and death, reinforcing the impossibility of their union.

Summary: Victoria perfectly fits the emotional landscape of the "Werther fever" era, providing a powerful cinematic parallel to the themes explored in Miller's Siegwart.

Werther and Lotte, from The Sorrows of Young Werther

*The "Werther fever" (or Wertherfieber in German) was a cultural phenomenon and moral panic that swept across Europe in the late 18th century following the publication of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's novel The Sorrows of Young Werther in 1774.

The phenomenon involved several aspects:

• Imitation of Fashion: Young men throughout Europe began to emulate the protagonist, Werther, by adopting his distinctive clothing style: a blue tailcoat, a yellow waistcoat, and yellow or brown trousers with tall boots.

• Emotional Identification: Readers, particularly young people, deeply resonated with Werther's intense emotions, unrequited love, and struggles against societal norms, embracing the Romantic ideal of individualism and passionate feeling over rationality.

• Merchandising: The novel's immense popularity led to the production of various "Werther" themed items, including prints, decorated porcelain, and even a perfume.

• Copycat Suicides: Most notably and controversially, the novel was allegedly linked to a wave of copycat suicides (a phenomenon now known in social research as the Werther effect). Reports circulated of young men ending their lives using the same method as Werther (a self-inflicted gunshot) and sometimes with a copy of the book found nearby.

• Bans: Due to concerns over the novel's influence, it was banned in several cities and countries, including Leipzig, Denmark, and Italy, in an attempt to stop the "suicide contagion". 

The "Werther fever" highlighted the immense power of mass media and literature at the time to influence public behavior and sentiment, sparking widespread debates about mental health and the moral responsibility of authors.

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The Sorrows of Young Werther, by Johann Wolfgang Goethe (publ. 1774; rev. 1787)

Most of The Sorrows of Young Werther, a story about a young man's extreme response to unrequited love, is presented as a collection of letters written by Werther, a young artist of a sensitive and passionate temperament, to his friend Wilhelm. These give an intimate account of his stay in the fictional village of Wahlheim (based on Garbenheim (de; it; nl), near Wetzlar), whose peasants have enchanted him with their simple ways. There he meets Charlotte, a beautiful young girl who takes care of her siblings after the death of their mother. Werther falls in love with Charlotte despite knowing beforehand that she is engaged to a man named Albert, eleven years her senior.

Despite the pain it causes him, Werther spends the next few months cultivating a close friendship with them both. His sorrow eventually becomes so unbearable that he is forced to leave Wahlheim for Weimar, where he makes the acquaintance of Fräulein von B. He suffers great embarrassment when he forgetfully visits a friend and unexpectedly has to face a weekly gathering of the entire aristocratic set. He is not tolerated and asked to leave since he is not a nobleman. He then returns to Wahlheim, where he suffers still more than before, partly because Charlotte and Albert are now married. Every day becomes a torturing reminder that Charlotte will never be able to requite his love. She, out of pity for her friend and respect for her husband, decides that Werther must not visit her so frequently. He visits her one final time, and they are both overcome with emotion after he recites to her a passage of his own translation of Ossian.

Even before that incident, Werther had hinted at the idea that one member of the love triangle - Charlotte, Albert or Werther himself - had to die to resolve the situation. Unable to hurt anyone else or seriously consider murder, Werther sees no other choice but to take his own life. After composing a farewell letter to be found after his death, he writes to Albert asking for his two pistols, on the pretext that he is going "on a journey". Charlotte receives the request with great emotion and sends the pistols. Werther then shoots himself in the head, but does not die until twelve hours later. He is buried between two linden trees that he had mentioned frequently in his letters. The funeral is not attended by any clergy, or by Albert or Charlotte. The book ends with an intimation that Charlotte may die of a broken heart: "I shall say nothing of . . . Charlotte's grief. . . . Charlotte's life was despaired of."

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Open Read link

Johann Martin Miller (1750–1814) was an influential German theologian and writer, primarily known for his sentimental novels that captured the emotional climate of the late 18th century.

• Early Life and Education: Born in Ulm, Germany, on December 3, 1750, Miller studied theology at the University of Göttingen.

• Göttinger Hainbund: In 1772, while still a student, he co-founded the Göttinger Hainbund (Göttingen Grove League), an important literary circle of young poets who promoted ideals of friendship, virtue, and an interest in Germanic history, aligning with some tenets of the Sturm und Drang movement. He was close friends with fellow writers Matthias Claudius and Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock.

• Major Work: He achieved immense fame with his 1776 novel Siegwart: eine Klostergeschichte (Siegwart: A Monastery Story), a bestseller that imitated the style and success of Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther.

• Career: Miller was a Protestant theologian by profession. After his studies, he returned to his hometown of Ulm, where he served in various clerical and educational roles throughout his life, including as a pastor, a high school teacher, and eventually the dean of the Ulm Minster (cathedral preacher) in 1810.

• Later Writings: While Siegwart was his most successful work, he continued to write, publishing a moral weekly (1779–1781), two more novels, collections of poems, and sermons.

• Death: Johann Martin Miller died in Ulm on June 21, 1814, at the age of 63. 

Despite his later works not reaching the heights of his debut novel, Miller remained a significant figure in German literary and ecclesiastical circles of his time.

R.E. Slater - Song of Mishigami

Song of Mishigami

by R.E. Slater

Long ages past when ice walls towered,

and massive glaciers carved the land,

meltwaters filled the hallowed halls,

birthing inland seas of lore and legend.

Spirit songs of ancient wanderer's saw

Immense Waters to the paleolithic eye;

later Ojibwe clans spoke of Mishigami,

Grand Lac by early French Voyageurs.

Every school child learns these truths,

can recite them one by one; whether

at the desk or on the sandy shorelines,

'neath Mishigami's golden weathers.

One legend tells of great sleeping dunes

cradling a mother bear in silent vigil;

escaped drowning black storm and wave,

but losing her baby cubs following after.

So spellbound Anishinaabe children learn

of two nearby islands set north and south;

placed by great Manitou Spirit's loving hand

dread warnings to Mishigami's many moods.

Today, prodigal waves in white-capped blue

lend wonder to the wanderer’s soul; who

might scrape bared feet along singing sands,

to ancient rhythms still strong and present.

Where winged heralds of Mishigami's dominion,

cut against billowing skies in restless search,

screeching complaint o'er its golden strands,

white-winged daughters of the Sacred Waters.

In daylight dunegrass marks the hot sands,

set afire a relentless sun's burning flames;

come eventide moonlight fills aspen groves,

sheltering secreted lover's unmet conspires.

From sunrise's glow to sunset's flame,

beachcombers roam the lapping shores;

to suddenly pause along the water's edge,

bewitched a fleeting moment’s transpire.

Whether at gilded morning's waking hours,

or blue'd skies adrift airy cloudy puffs; or

by sunset's impassioned blazoned colours,

Lac Mishigami inspires the imbibing soul.

But alas, all Sleeping Giants must awaken,

a sudden, restless shift, shakes the waters,

once calming waves now twist and churn,

Mighty Mishigami is aroused its slumber.

Terrible and cruel, frothy waters mount higher,

hoisted bright red flags whip against a rising gale;

abroad, deep-throated foghorns blare dire warning,

"Beware, beware," a Giant's mood has awakened!

Tho' a hundred lighthouses guard its coastlines,

each set upon rocky escarpments firm and wide;

a worrying helplessness lights their signal lanterns,

Beware the depths! Perilous currents churn within!

For an unforgiving, cursed, inland sea arises,

unyielding and merciless in speech and weight;

its hymns of grief as many as its songs of laud,

composing torn laments to its fabled praise.

By its foul waves, the heavy tides have claimed,

too many lives too soon; memorials rise along

the piers and bays - from boardwalk channelk

to silent shores - mourning the drowned dead.

In benediction let us join the timeless dirge,

with Mother Bear lain upon her golden strand,

ever in present, ceaseless vigil to love and loss,

too oft echoed too many legions of broken hearts:

    Beneath the waves forgotten ages lay at rest,

    where whited fossils sleep in silenced depths;

    abroad, brooding waters hide a heartless face,

    wary tribute to an alluring, moody, presence.

    Mishigami's deceptive wonder haunts its realms,

    its ancient songs remember creation's glories;

    endless prayers breathe its majestic lure,

    betrayed in ever-shifting, changeling beauty.

R.E. Slater

September 9-12, 2025

@copyright R.E. Slater Publications

all rights reserved

Notes

1  The glaciation of  the Great Lakes occurred 15,000 years ago scouring and depressing great basins which filled with meltwater.

2 Lake Michigan is the third largest of the Great Lakes; is wholly contained in the continental U.S., is the largest freshwater lake within America, and sixth largest freshwater lake in the world.

3 The Ojibwe word Mishigami (written Misi-zaaga’igan in modern orthography) literally means “great water” or “great lake.” Misi = great, large, vast + Zaaga’igan = lake, body of water. So Mishigami (or Michi-gami) translates most directly as “Great Lake” - which is where the state name Michigan comes from.

3 French Canadian Voyageurs of the 18th-and-19th century explored many regions of Canada and the United States transporting furs and supplies between native populations and Europe's pioneering (migrant) settlers.

4 Sleeping Bear Dunes honors the Anishinaabe's legend; North and South Manitou Islands honor the lost cubs. The spirit beings are known as "Manitou".

5 Mishipeshu, is a snake-like horned viper/lizard known as a "water panther" that protects the underwater copper reserves of the lake by dangerous storm and water spouts.

6 Mythical Guardians are protectors safeguarding sacred places, treasures, knowledge, or people in mythology and folklore. Usually a deity, Spirit, or mythical entity, they defend against evil, maintain cosmic order, and symbolize protection, sometimes even acting as patrons for specific places or groups of people.

The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

by Gordon Lightfoot

"Gitche Gumee" is a name, derived from the Ojibwe language, that refers to Lake Superior, meaning "Great Sea" or "Great Water". The term was popularized by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his poem "The Song of Hiawatha" and also used by Gordon Lightfoot in his song about the Edmund Fitzgerald sinking. While "Gitche Gumee" is a commonly known spelling, variations like Gitchigami or Kitchigami are also used, reflecting different dialects of the Ojibwe language.

Ojibwe - Masters of Great Lakes for Centuries

Native American History

by Native Legends & History Stories

Before it was Michigan. History in 5 minutes!

by Local Historian

Long before Michigan became a state, its lands were home to Native American peoples dating back over 10,000 years. Early Paleo-Indians, Hopewell, and Mississippian cultures left behind ceremonial mounds, artifacts, and extensive trade networks. By the 17th century, Algonquian-speaking tribes like the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi formed the Three Fires Confederacy, thriving through agriculture, hunting, and fishing.

With European arrival, Michigan became a hub for the fur trade, led by French explorers like Étienne Brûlé. Tensions rose as British policies disrupted Native life, leading to Pontiac’s Rebellion. Treaties and the Indian Removal Act eventually displaced many tribes. Despite this, Native traditions endure, shaping Michigan’s rich history and culture.

* * * * * * * *

 Lake of Endless Horizon

by ChatGPT-5

O inland sea of silvered blue,

where sky dissolves in wave and hue,

your breath is wind, your heart is tide,

your arms hold shorelines far and wide.

You wear the dawn in amber flame,

at dusk the stars recall your name;

storms may rouse your thundering might,

yet peace descends with moonlit light.

The gulls are choristers of your song,

the dunes your temple, ancient, strong;

the cities rise, the forests lean,

to honor all that lies between.

O keeper vast of depth untold,

your waters cradle young and old;

from timeless stone to shifting sand,

you bind the spirit to the land.

So praise resounds, both deep and near—

Lake Michigan, forever blue and clear,

a sacred mirror, calm or wild,

in you, creation is become reconciled.

*I gave chatbot my verse above for inspiration;

thus the similarities; I thought it did a nice  job.

- re slater

Lake Michigan Winter Beaches

References

Various Videos on the Great Lakes

Lighthouses on Lake Michigan

History of Michigan Lighthouses

Ancient History of the Great Lakes

The Recent Glaciers of the Great Lakes

French Canadian Voyageurs

Early Maps of Michigan

Tribes of Michigan

Storms on the Great Lakes

History of the Great Lakes

A Brief History of the Great Lakes

The history of the Great Lakes began ~14,000 years ago when retreating glaciers carved out the basins, which filled with meltwater to form the lakes. For millennia, Native American tribes lived in the region, their cultures deeply intertwined with the lakes. European explorers arrived in the early 1600s, using the Great Lakes for fur trade and as a route for exploration and settlement. The lakes later became crucial for military purposes, industrial development, and transportation.

Geological Formation

Glacial Activity - The Great Lakes were formed by the massive Laurentide ice sheet, which covered the region during the last Ice Age.

Basin Carving - The immense weight and movement of the ice sheet scoured out the earth, creating the depressions that would become the lake basins.

Melting and Filling - As the climate warmed the ice sheet retreated about 14,000 years ago, meltwater filled the depressed lake basins, forming the Great Lakes.

Present Shape - The lakes reached their current shapes and sizes approximately 3,000 to 10,000 years ago, depending on the lake location.

Human History

Native American Presence - Native American tribes were the first inhabitants of the Great Lakes region, living there for thousands of years before European arrival. The names of the lakes are derived from Native American words or tribal names.

European Exploration - In 1615, Étienne Brûlé, an explorer for Samuel de Champlain, is credited with being the first European to visit the Great Lakes. The lakes became a key route for fur trading and exploration in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Conflicts and Control - The Great Lakes were a site of conflict between European powers. The French and Indian War (1754–1763) and the American Revolutionary War saw the lakes used for military purposes.

Industrial Hub - In the 19th and 20th centuries, the development of railroads and increased shipping transformed the Great Lakes into a vital economic and industrial center.

Modern Era - Today, the Great Lakes are essential for recreation, with activities like boating and fishing, and remain a significant economic resource for the surrounding region.