Emblems of the Passing World: Poems after Photographs by August Sander

by Adam Kirsch

August Sander’s photographic portraits of ordinary people in Weimar Germany inspire this uncanny new collection of poems by one of America’s most celebrated writers and critics

Through his portraits of ordinary people—soldiers, housewives, children, peasants, and city dwellers—August Sander, the German photographer whose work chronicled the extreme tensions and transitions of the twentieth century, captured a moment in history whose consequences he himself couldn’t have predicted. Using these photographs as a lens, Adam Kirsch’s poems connect the legacy of the First World War with the turmoil of the Weimar Republic with moving immediacy and meditative insight, and foreshadow the Nazi era. Kirsch writes both urgently and poignantly about these photographs, creating a unique dialogue of word and image that will speak to all readers interested in history, past and present.

Genres: Poetry, Photography, Art, History

128 pages, Hardcover

First published November 17, 2015

About the author

Adam Kirsch is the author of two collections of poems and several books of poetry criticism. A senior editor at the New Republic and a columnist for Tablet, he also writes for The New Yorker and the New York Review of Books. He lives in New York City with his wife and son.

Reviews

[Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to Goodreads and Other Press for the review copy. I haven’t written a review in probably a year, so I’m sure to be a little rusty. What’s worse is this might be one of the hardest to review. A book of poems inspired by the stark portraits of August Sander. This is one of those books you simply need to read for yourself. How else to depict a series of poems written after portraits of early 20th Century Germans (mostly pre-WWII)? It’s exactly what you might expect – haunting, prophetic, stark, and often odium-laced. The eyes of the subjects pierce the lens and plead to have their stories told, as if to say, “Look at us. We did it. All of us. We’re all guilty.”

On the back cover, famed writer Andre Aciman says, “Kirsch sees through their stilled exteriors with guile, compassion, and forgiveness.” I can’t help think that this is not the complete picture. I felt a skewering in much of these, or at the very least, a hint of the complacent, willing executioners that Sander’s subjects would soon become as a collective society.

Like a sonnet’s turn, Kirsch uses the poetic form to demonstrate how seemingly innocent people (and mostly blue-eyed, of course) will soon fall prey as either victims or predators to Hitler’s war machine. One thing is clear, none of them have any idea what’s about to happen. And it seems even Sander knew this, as if his compulsive desire to capture the resigned surrender and feebleness of each subject is proof positive.

Here is my favorite poem:



Working-class Mother

Whatever flashing or unlikely thing
The baby boy is beaming at remains
Beyond the frame, forever vanishing,
An emblem of the passing world that feigns
A permanence in which he still believes.
His mother, who has reached the age to know
How quickly our most dear belongings leave –
Having observed her hope and patience go
Until at thirty she looks middle-aged –
Doesn’t attempt to hold him back, but holds
Him proudly up and forward like a pledge
To time. If he is eighty-six years old
Today, with all his hope and patience gone,
Having survived when all those millions died
Only to die a little later on,
Her greatest wish will have been satisfied.

I see how some see forgiveness, but I also see a gavel or what we call today a mic drop.

[Mir · Rating 2 out of 5]

This collection opens with "Man of the Soil"



After so many decades in the sun,
The man of the soil begins to look like soil —
His wrinkles furrows and his hands the brown
Of the resisting earth it was his toil
And craft to trick into fertility,
And into which he is prepared to merge
Now that encroachments of senility
Keep him from drawing forth the surplusage
Upon which the philosophers and priests,
The men of business and their houseproud wives,
And all the rest we are about to meet
Must batten for their unproductive lives.
He climes the pride of place as Adam's curse,
Inscribed upon the entrance of a field,
Comes first in the economy of force
Without whose dull compulsion nothing yields.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

A charming mix of historical photographs (1910s–1950s Germany) and poems. Kirsch uses his poetry to bring these one-dimensional figures to life, imagining the stories behind their generic titles (“Office Worker” or “Farming Family”) and sometimes slyly questioning the political and status connotations of such designations. Most of the verses rhyme in an ABAB pattern or rhyming couplets; usually I don’t like such persistent rhyme schemes, but here the word choice is subtle enough that you hardly notice them except as a pleasing lilting rhythm. One of my favorites was “Student of Philosophy,” which ends

Spending his life inside the giant shadow
Cast by the real, which his philosophy
Describes as the Idea, the noumenon,
And other honorifics that suggest
The actual’s to be looked down upon
By those predestined to the second-best.

I also especially liked “Aviator,” a symbol of “what remains of the antique desire / To leave ourselves behind by going higher.”

The most striking/disturbing photograph, entitled “My Wife in Joy and Sorrow” (1911), depicts a woman holding two infants in identical garb in her arms, one of the twins clearly dead. That and a photograph of a recently deceased elderly woman are testament to a time when death was a more accepted part of life and photos were both a memento mori and a way of keeping the dead close. This book could draw people whose interests usually run more to nonfiction – especially social history – into giving poetry a try.

[jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

nearly four dozen poems inspired by early 20th century portraits taken by german photographer august sander, poet/critic adam kirsch's emblems of the passing world is not only a snapshot of a bygone era, but also a rendering of a nation and its inhabitants just prior to a political upheaval that would change the course of history forever. each poem shares its name with the titled photograph on the opposing page, with sander's subjects' lives imagined and deconstructed by kirsch. capturing the breadth of german society, including children, bricklayer, soldier, parliamentarian, scholar, mother, clerk, student, and many points in between, kirsch takes sander's imposing photographs and reanimates their subjects — envisaging individual lives great and small.

butcher's apprentice

the high white collar and the bowler hat,
the black coat of respectability,
the starched cuff and the brandished cigarette
are what he has decided we will see,
though in the closet hands an apron flecked
with bits of brain beside the rubber boots
stained bloody brown from wading through the slick
that by the end of every workday coats
the killing floor he stands on. he declines
to illustrate as in a children's book
the work he does, although it will define
him every time the photograph he took
is shown and captioned for posterity —
even as his proud eyes and carriage say
that what he is is not what he would be,
in a just world where no one had to slay.

[Kris (My Novelesque Life) · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 STARS

(I received an ARC from the NETGALLEY in exchange for an honest review.)

In the Emblems of the Passing World we see photographs of August Sander of Germans from before World War I to World War II. The photographs are beautiful and capture so much emotion and make you wonder the story behind them. Unfortunately, I was not a fan of Adam Kirsch's poetry. I am not sure the poetry really conveys anything about the photo and often are just jumbled words. I have to admit I stopped reading the poems after 60 pages and just looked at the great photos. I would only recommend this book to those who enjoy great poetry.

k (My Novelesque Life)

http://mynovelesquelife.blogspot.ca/2...

[Lori Tatar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book and even read a few poems to my granddaughter, examining the photos both before and after each reading. The stories that come together between the two are quite interesting. If a picture can tell a thousand words, when combined with the short poems, those thousand words are more telling than you'd ever think they could be. The book is a study in sociology, imagination, language and photography, and makes a very heady blend. This one is a keeper!

[Penny lurkykitty · Rating 4 out of 5]

This little book is a pairing of photographs by August Sander, and poems by Adam Kirsch which are based on the photographs. The photographs are brilliant and clear, and for the most part, the poems fit the photographs. The effect is engaging, haunting and, in most cases, sad.
I received Emblems of the Passing World through a Goodreads giveaway. Thank you.

[Alicia Gordon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received an advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review. The rating stars are not yet static. Review to come. I have much to say. (:

[Joseph Spuckler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Emblems of the Passing World: Poems after Photographs by August Sander by Adam Kirsch is a collection of photographs by August Sanders accompanied by descriptive poetry written by Kirsch. Sanders is described as the most important portrait photographer in Germany during the pre and interwar years. Kirsch is the author of two collections of poems and several books of poetry criticism. A senior editor at the New Republic and a columnist for Tablet, he also writes for The New Yorker and the New York Review of Books. He lives in New York City with his wife and son.

First and foremost the pictures are stunning. The black and white photographs almost seem to have a three-dimensional effect. There seems to be a realism to the pictures, in that I mean looking through a window rather than at a picture. I received this as an ebook and am happy to have read it on my Kindle tablet rather than my Paperwhite. The photographs are art in themselves that need to be viewed in the highest quality.

The photographs capture real people in portraits from various walks of life. From a brick layer to laboratory technicians to a university librarian. The well-weathered faces of farmers who spent their life in the elements strike a vivid pose. Some pictures seem rather startling and even disturbing. "My Wife in Joy and Sorrow" shows a mother holding twin children in christening gowns one child alive and the other clearly deceased is a haunting photograph in itself.

The poetry catches the spirit of the times. The match seller and the bricklayer show the very real separation of the classes and the rise of that "Spectre" that was spreading across Europe. The poems are based off the picture and the original title. Some of the poetry fits very well and compares to the pictures and the times they were taken. Some seem to detract from the pictures, or that may be my own interpretation of the photographs

Today we are flooded with pictures of friends, pictures of what your friends are having for dinner, complete with filters, special effects, and even photoshopped. This collection is from a time when photographs were special events. They are powerful images of the past and a true look at the people in the past. A century has passed since many of these photographs have been taken and it would be safe to say that all the subjects, even the youngest, have all passed, but their images seem to capture and hold firm on a moment in time. It is a bit of history, that as hard as it seems, goes beyond written words of the past and even beyond period newsreels. The capturing of a single instant does seem to be worth a thousand words...or more.

[Richard Cho · Rating 4 out of 5]

As if there's an alternative to losing,
As if our lives, after a century,
Will not become an equally depressing,
Equally laughable case history--


Working-class Mother

Whatever flashing or unlikely thing
The baby boy is beaming at remains
Beyond the frame, forever vanishing,
An emblem of the passing world that feigns
A permanence in which he still believes.
His mother, who has reached the age to know
How quickly our most dear belongings leave --
Having observed her hope and patience go
Until at thirty she looks middle-aged --
Doesn't attempt to hold him back, but holds
Him proudly up and forward like a pledge
To time. If he is eighty-six years old
Today, with all his hope and patience gone,
Having survived when all those millions died
Only to die a little later on,
Her greatest wish will have been satisfied.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this combination of poetry and photography. The poetry is written by Adam Kirsch, who used the photographic portraits of August Sanders to inspire the pieces in this book. I am not familiar with Adam Kirsch, but many of his poems were great accompaniments to the photographs. August Sander was a German photographer, working in the early 20th century. His photographs are beautiful and haunting. While many of those in the portraits are anonymous, they bring faces to the forefront of a time in history that is baffling and heartbreaking.

[Bryn]

The idea of this book is interesting and the photographs are marvelous but unfortunately Kirsch's poetry is just not up to the task -- there are interesting ideas in the poems, but *as poems* they do not work at all. [Oct 2023]

[Ella · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the photos, but Kirsch’s poetry just isn’t really it. It’s a cool ambitious project, but the occasional half-assed rhyming hurts more than it helps.

[Lisa-Michele · Rating 2 out of 5]

A photo essay and a book of poems on World War I-era Germany. I wanted to read more about WWI due to my great-uncle's service in Europe. The photographs are by August Sander, a German documentary photographer who captured German people in their everyday lives. They are haunting and beautiful, both the people and the photographs. My favorites include "Farm Woman and Children", "Confirmation Candidate", and "Small Town Women." He has a marvelous eye for the ordinary. It is heart-wrenching to think of these people on the verge of being torn apart by the First World War and maybe even the Hitler era, depending on their fate. The poetry I did not enjoy. It is written by Adam Kirsch, as a modern accompaniment to the century-old photographs. Kirsch in unnecessarily negative and bleak in his assessment of the people pictured. I was offended by his smugness and judgment of them without knowing the first thing about them. Sometimes poetry works wonders, but this time it did not.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adam Kirsch has written poems inspired by or interpreting a collection of photographs by the German photographer, August Sander of pre-world one and inter war Germany. Some of the early photographs take the reader to an era when men wore starched collars and women long sleeved dresses. I found the photographs riveting. Many the subjects gaze at me, almost knowingly, from over a century away, with a penetrating or, at times, or inquisitive stare. I found Mr. Kirsch's poems accompanying each photographs uneven. Some of the poems, especially those whose photographic subjects are working class men and women gave voice to the status, aspirations and constraints of the people. Other poems were too abstract and required more effort from me to understand or grasp their meanings.

I read the poems once a week over a three month period. I eagerly looked forward to the time travel adventure and experience.

[Sharon Barrow Wilfong · Rating 5 out of 5]

August Sander (1876-1964) photographed people in his native Germany from every walk of life between the World Wars. Because he saw how drastically his world changed after WWI, he realized that he wanted to preserve it in some way before it changed again. His photos include school teachers, butchers, children, artists and soldiers, rich, poor and middle class. He succeeded in encapsulating a period of time that no longer exists.

The book I own is titled, Emblems of the Passing World which not only has Sander's photos but poems by Adam Kirsch that he wrote based on the inspiration he received from each photo.


I personally did not find Kirsch's poetry that effective because I am more interested in who those people really were and not a reality that someone one hundred years later fabricated for them.

[J. · Rating 2 out of 5]

The introduction would have benefited from greater depth. The accompanying poetry is okay: it runs the gamut, inconsistently, from inspired (with solid turns of phrase) to stilted MFA-esque assignment writing (especially in terms of poetic form and the heavy-handed references to Capitalism/Communism early on). The readings of the photographs are okay, if also inconsistent: they range from the literal to broad-sweeping and simplistic. I can't help but think that it's missing a certain je ne sais quoi. Still: an interesting and worthy project.

I received an electronic copy of this galley from Net Galley.

[Hayley Stone · Rating 1 out of 5]

While the concept of decoding poems from old photographs is interesting, I found these poems dry and boring. There's no life in them. The fact that each one was an observation of the photo rather than from the subject's POV also added distance and an uncomfortable quality of voyeurism.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Blaise Morita]

The turmoil that gripped Europe and emerging industrial powerhouse Germany is captured with quiet dignity in August Sandler's camera lenses. Using this template as a jumping off point, poet Adam Kirsch attempts to spin a literary description to accompany images that already paint such vivid visuals.

*Review to be updated upon receipt and completion of book.