German Poetry

This anthology of German poetry prints a representative section from the work of seventeen poets writing from the mid eighteenth century to the present. There are poems by Klopstock, Goethe, Schiller, Hölderlin, Novalis, Brentano, Eichendorff, Heine, Droste–Hülshoff, Mörike, Hofmannsthal, Rilke, Trakl, Benn, Brecht, Celan, and Enzensberger. The aim of the volume is to dispel whatever fears students may have about reading German poetry by suggesting that lyric poetry offers the most economical and enjoyable way of comprehending the range and variety of German literature over the past two hundred years. In his introduction Professor Swales discusses the nature of lyric poetry in general and then presents a brief historical survey of the themes and modes of German lyric poetry in this period. Notes are provided on individual poems, not with the aim of offering definitive interpretations, but in order to highlight points of theme and style and to facilitate class discussion.