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The Führer Bunker: A Cycle of Poems in Progress
Book by Snodgrass, W. D
- GenresPoetry
72 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1977
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73 people want to read
About the author
W.D. Snodgrass
85 books47 followersWilliam De Witt Snodgrass, pseudonym S. S. Gardons, is an American poet and a 1960 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winner.
Snodgrass's first poems appeared in 1951, and throughout the 1950's he published in some of the most prestigious magazines: Botteghe Oscure, Partisan Review, The New Yorker, The Paris Review and The Hudson Review. However, in 1957, five sections from a sequence entitled Heart's Needle were included in Hall, Pack and Simpson's anthology, New Poets of England and America, and these were to mark a turning-point. When Lowell had been shown early versions of these poems, in 1953, he had disliked them, but now he was full of admiration.
By the time Heart's Needle was published, in 1959, Snodgrass had already won the The Hudson Review Fellowship in Poetry and an Ingram Merrill Foundation Poetry Prize. However, his first book brought him more: a citation from the Poetry Society of America, a grant from the National Institute of Arts, and, most important of all, 1960's Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. It is often said that Heart's Needle inaugurated confessional verse. Snodgrass disliked the term. Still, it should be pointed out that the genre he was reviving here seemed revolutionary to most of his contemporaries, reared as they had been on the anti-expressionistic principles of the New Critics. Snodgrass's confessional work was to have a profound effect on many of his contemporaries, amongst them, most importantly, Robert Lowell.
Snodgrass's first poems appeared in 1951, and throughout the 1950's he published in some of the most prestigious magazines: Botteghe Oscure, Partisan Review, The New Yorker, The Paris Review and The Hudson Review. However, in 1957, five sections from a sequence entitled Heart's Needle were included in Hall, Pack and Simpson's anthology, New Poets of England and America, and these were to mark a turning-point. When Lowell had been shown early versions of these poems, in 1953, he had disliked them, but now he was full of admiration.
By the time Heart's Needle was published, in 1959, Snodgrass had already won the The Hudson Review Fellowship in Poetry and an Ingram Merrill Foundation Poetry Prize. However, his first book brought him more: a citation from the Poetry Society of America, a grant from the National Institute of Arts, and, most important of all, 1960's Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. It is often said that Heart's Needle inaugurated confessional verse. Snodgrass disliked the term. Still, it should be pointed out that the genre he was reviving here seemed revolutionary to most of his contemporaries, reared as they had been on the anti-expressionistic principles of the New Critics. Snodgrass's confessional work was to have a profound effect on many of his contemporaries, amongst them, most importantly, Robert Lowell.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 23, 2007
This is the most important poetry from the second half of the 20th century--dark, astonishingly masterful, terrifying, and the bravest poetic act I know of, ever.
May 24, 2008
I thought some of the forms were really interesting, especially the poems written like a telegram on chart paper. I read the Poems In Progress first -- and definitely think the complete cycle adds more complex layers and develops the personas more fully -- but still thought it could have gone further in delving in the psyche of the Nazis in the last days of the bunker.
May 13, 2020
Snodgrass is no Nazi or a Nazi sympathizer, and this book is no Mein Kampf or an attempt to "humanize the Nazis" or anything similar.
W. D. Snodgrass is a master poet and this book is a masterpiece. And in it he is showcasing the kind of skills that won him the Pulitzer Prize For Poetry in 1960.
From Gertrude M. White in Odyssey: A Journal of the Humanities: “In these poems, we are overhearing people talking to themselves, each character speaking in a verse form expressive of his or her personality, revealing who and what they are with a dramatic power that carries conviction almost against our will.”
W. D. Snodgrass is a master poet and this book is a masterpiece. And in it he is showcasing the kind of skills that won him the Pulitzer Prize For Poetry in 1960.
From Gertrude M. White in Odyssey: A Journal of the Humanities: “In these poems, we are overhearing people talking to themselves, each character speaking in a verse form expressive of his or her personality, revealing who and what they are with a dramatic power that carries conviction almost against our will.”
October 5, 2025
Poems or monologues from people like Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, Dr. Joseph Goebbels, Albert Speer, Hermann Goering - their wives and mistresses in the last days of the war.
March 25, 2009
Final month of Nazi Germany chronologically constructed through the voices of several prominent party members, Hitler and Eva Braun. Each voice has its own form and part of the drama of the book is watching these forms shift and crack as each character comes to understand that she/he is living in the last days of the party.
It's a great conceit. Snodgrass creates this sense of increasing physical and mental claustrophobia as the minds of his speakers sink into themselves. He nails fear, self-loathing and the way a mind moves in panic and despair--mocking itself, sentimentalizing better times, making flimsy plans. His biggest trick is getting you to emphasize with his characters.
Unfortunately, the overall execution doesn't quite deliver. The forms through which his characters speak shift but these shifts feel inevitable or insufficient. What's most frustrating is that what makes these big men of history tick--the huge, big question that this project promises to answer--is explained in sometimes the flimsiest of Freudianisms. Obviously, it's somewhat heroic for Snodgrass to even try and expecting anything truly satisfying is silly, but still...
Despite these reservations, this is a book worth reading if you're at all interested in how poems try tackling history. Which I am. So I did.
It's a great conceit. Snodgrass creates this sense of increasing physical and mental claustrophobia as the minds of his speakers sink into themselves. He nails fear, self-loathing and the way a mind moves in panic and despair--mocking itself, sentimentalizing better times, making flimsy plans. His biggest trick is getting you to emphasize with his characters.
Unfortunately, the overall execution doesn't quite deliver. The forms through which his characters speak shift but these shifts feel inevitable or insufficient. What's most frustrating is that what makes these big men of history tick--the huge, big question that this project promises to answer--is explained in sometimes the flimsiest of Freudianisms. Obviously, it's somewhat heroic for Snodgrass to even try and expecting anything truly satisfying is silly, but still...
Despite these reservations, this is a book worth reading if you're at all interested in how poems try tackling history. Which I am. So I did.
May 30, 2012
The versification seems inappropriate and the psychology oversimplified.
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March 1, 2013811.54 S673f 1977
December 23, 2015
Outstanding. Would strongly recommend.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews