German Poetry An Anthology from Klopstock to Enzensberger

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, Holderlin, Novalis, Brentano, Eichendorff, Heine, Droste-Hulshoff, Morike, 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.

Preface; Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Friedrich Klopstock; 2. Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe; 3. Friedrich Schiller; 4. Friedrich Hölderlin; 5. Novalis; 6. Clemens Brentano; Joseph Freiherr Von Eichendorff; 7. Heinrich Heine; 8. Annette Von Droste–Hülshoff; 9. Eduard Mörike; 10. Hugo Von Hofmannsthal; 11. Rainer Maria Rilke; 12. Georg Trakl; 13. Gottfried Benn; 14. Bertolt Brecht; 15. Paul Celan; 16. Hans Magnus Enzenberger; Notes on the poems; Select bibliography.

This anthology contains poems from poets from the mid-eighteenth century to the present, including: Klopstock, Goethe, Schiller, Hölderlin, Novalis, Brentano, Eichendorff, Heine, Droste-Hülshoff, Mörike, Hofmannsthal, Rilke, Trakl, Benn, Brecht, Celan and Enzensberger. It discusses the nature of lyric poetry and gives an historical survey of the themes and modes of German lyric poetry of this period.