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Poems and verse plays
The description for this book, Poems and Verse Plays, will be forthcoming.
562 pages
First published June 1, 1961
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About the author
Hugo von Hofmannsthal
461 books133 followersAustrian writer Hugo von Hofmannsthal established his reputation with lyric poems and a number of plays, including
Yesterday
(1891) and
Death and the Fool
(1893).
This Austrian novelist, librettist, poet, dramatist, narrator, and essayist flourished.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_vo...
This Austrian novelist, librettist, poet, dramatist, narrator, and essayist flourished.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_vo...
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 21, 2025
Hofmannsthal looks for authenticity and enchantment in a blend of aestheticism/symbolism (poetry, dream, madness) and traditional genres (fairy tale, morality play, myth).
February 24, 2015
Hofmannsthal is known for his skepticism of language – its limitations in grasping objective reality (see The Lord Chandos Letter http://depts.washington.edu/vienna/do...). It shouldn’t be surprising to anyone that language does not reflect reality. The question is whether it is a barrier. To that, I guess that a life narrowly focused on art/language and the inner world, to the detriment of worldly connections, would be a barrier to reality (whatever that is).
It appears, though, that Hofmannsthal also intended that to mean that art or language divorced from the social context (such as salon or avant-garde poetry) was not meaningful. For him, it appears to me, poetry needs to be conducted/performed/used as part of an active, practical life connected to the social world. He wanted to restore poetry (and the artist) to an active role in the community.
Hofmannsthal's verse plays are beautiful pieces, but ephemeral.
Death and the Fool **** – This appears to be some kind of Christmas Carol with a less happy ending. Death comes for a man who realizes he hasn’t lived. He is confronted by the spirits of several people has abused during his life, and seeing his error he begs for a second chance at life. Death denies his request, so the man decides to embrace death to its fullest.
The Emperor and the Witch ** – This is an odd story about an emperor out in the woods trying to avoid having sex with a witch for seven consecutive days. It appears that would break some kind of spell – though the cost of that spell is unclear. The cause of the spell seems to be that he wasn’t true to himself, but I’m not sure what or how the emperor has been untrue to himself. Meanwhile, he confronts people from is past and he debates what control one has over his own life.
There’s something I’m missing in this play.
Prologue to the “Antigone” of Sophocles *** – This is a short but intense exploration of the nature of man, of theatre and dream, and how they come together confusedly. All the world’s a stage, and all the stage is a world, and they both embody dreams.
It appears, though, that Hofmannsthal also intended that to mean that art or language divorced from the social context (such as salon or avant-garde poetry) was not meaningful. For him, it appears to me, poetry needs to be conducted/performed/used as part of an active, practical life connected to the social world. He wanted to restore poetry (and the artist) to an active role in the community.
Hofmannsthal's verse plays are beautiful pieces, but ephemeral.
Death and the Fool **** – This appears to be some kind of Christmas Carol with a less happy ending. Death comes for a man who realizes he hasn’t lived. He is confronted by the spirits of several people has abused during his life, and seeing his error he begs for a second chance at life. Death denies his request, so the man decides to embrace death to its fullest.
The Emperor and the Witch ** – This is an odd story about an emperor out in the woods trying to avoid having sex with a witch for seven consecutive days. It appears that would break some kind of spell – though the cost of that spell is unclear. The cause of the spell seems to be that he wasn’t true to himself, but I’m not sure what or how the emperor has been untrue to himself. Meanwhile, he confronts people from is past and he debates what control one has over his own life.
There’s something I’m missing in this play.
Prologue to the “Antigone” of Sophocles *** – This is a short but intense exploration of the nature of man, of theatre and dream, and how they come together confusedly. All the world’s a stage, and all the stage is a world, and they both embody dreams.
March 6, 2015
[my review is for the poems. I did not read the verse plays]
Give yourself a treat, read his poems.
As I read them I could literally hear a music: a song and a melody. There were instruments too but--this is hard to describe--it is like the natural elements such as wind and rain had been harnessed by the poem so that the earth's rhythm supported his song.
I don't think that has ever happened to me before, for any poet. Auden and Keats may provide something similar though.
At times he reminded me of Poe because there is an unearthly feeling to his writing. And, as with Poe, it is the same feeling in each poem, like facets of a primordial archetype that only he can see and he tries to manifest it in the material world. Selections:
Stanzas in Terza Rima:
Our inmost life is open to their weaving;
Like ghostly hands in a locked room they teem
Within us, always living and conceiving
Ballad of the Outer Life:
And bitter fruit will sweeten by and by
And like dead birds come hurtling down at night
And for a few days fester where they lie.
Many Truly:
Many destinies with mine are woven;
Living plays them all through one another
The Youth in the Landscape:
The naked trees let all reveal itself.
One saw the river's reach and saw the market,
And many children played beside the ponds.
In Memory of Actor Mitterwurzer:
He went out suddenly like any light.
And we all bore a pallor on our faces
Like the reflection of a lightning flash.
...
He crept out of one mask into another,
Sprang from the father's into the son's body
And changed his shape as though it were his clothes.
Give yourself a treat, read his poems.
As I read them I could literally hear a music: a song and a melody. There were instruments too but--this is hard to describe--it is like the natural elements such as wind and rain had been harnessed by the poem so that the earth's rhythm supported his song.
I don't think that has ever happened to me before, for any poet. Auden and Keats may provide something similar though.
At times he reminded me of Poe because there is an unearthly feeling to his writing. And, as with Poe, it is the same feeling in each poem, like facets of a primordial archetype that only he can see and he tries to manifest it in the material world. Selections:
Stanzas in Terza Rima:
Our inmost life is open to their weaving;
Like ghostly hands in a locked room they teem
Within us, always living and conceiving
Ballad of the Outer Life:
And bitter fruit will sweeten by and by
And like dead birds come hurtling down at night
And for a few days fester where they lie.
Many Truly:
Many destinies with mine are woven;
Living plays them all through one another
The Youth in the Landscape:
The naked trees let all reveal itself.
One saw the river's reach and saw the market,
And many children played beside the ponds.
In Memory of Actor Mitterwurzer:
He went out suddenly like any light.
And we all bore a pallor on our faces
Like the reflection of a lightning flash.
...
He crept out of one mask into another,
Sprang from the father's into the son's body
And changed his shape as though it were his clothes.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews