An Anthology of German Poetry from Hölderlin to Rilke

by Ángel Flores (Editor)

Here, in new translations done especially for this volume, are major and representative works of fourteen leading German lyric poets of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Included in this volume are:

Friedrich Hölderlin
Novalis
Clemens Brentano
Joseph von Eichendorff
August Graf von Platen
Annette von Droste-Hulshoof
Heinrich Heine
Nikolaus Lenau
Eduard Mörike
Stefan George
Christian Morgenstern
Hugo von Hofmannsthal
Georg Trakl
Rainer Maria Rilke

Genres: Poetry

458 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1960

Reviews

[Shelley Alongi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my first serious exploration of German poetry. This is also my first exploration of poetry since high school English literature class. I have written poetry sometimes but I don’t do it very often. And I don’t read poetry very often but I do have a lingering interest in all things German since the age of 10 which to this date would be about 44 years. At interest covers a lot of different things and so I have decided to include poetry in that since a lot of people that I am involved with in my writing groups enjoy or compose poetry.

I thought I would count this book because it is in both English and German. I read German to keep the sound of it and feel of it in my head though I don’t always understand the words. I would need a dictionary with me and probably need to look up every single word except the ones I know of course. When I read something in German I look for things I recognize. I look for phrases that are repeated. I look for ideas that are expressed in the same words so that when I look them up in my dictionary I will have a preconceived idea of what a phrase or word could mean. I say all that because this collection of poetry is in English and German and so it’s interesting to me to see which words I recognize and how ideas that art in English are translated from the German. I found this first exploration into poetry using two languages very enlightening. I want to say that I enjoyed every subject but I will say I learned a lot about what I don’t know. I learned that I probably don’t know as many myths and legends as I think I know. Some of the poems in this book were very touching and sentimental. Some of them are quite mysterious I understand as far as the myths and legends go that poetry sometimes takes a license and arranges events and expresses events in ways that the author relates to and does not always stay true to the events as they are told in any single version. Does that sound like a red herring? Or does that sound like it rambles? I guess that’s the thing about poetry really. I like the short poems of course and I did find it useful to have both languages available so that I could see if I really understood what the poem was about or to see if I understood what the author was saying and how each author interpreted each story.

There is a great proclivity to write about death. The standard conventional wisdom is that German literature is dark. I found that to be true with some of the poems in this collection. I also found some very lighthearted subjects expressed such as nature. That was probably the lightest of the subjects. I look forward to reading this book again. I am sure that I will understand it differently next time. So did I understand what I read? Some of it. I will be reading this book a second time I am sure which means I will most likely understand it in a different way next time. I also noticed that I am the first person to write a review on this book. I am sure that what I write next time will be different from this time because I do have a general idea of the subjects covered in each poem else so I have a general roadmap to get me to where we are going. When I read the book again I will pay attention more closely to its introduction and conclusion. This is one of those books that calls for a second and reading at some point in my reading journey.