^{Note 1 in page 517} “Enumerative Style and its Significance in Whitman, Rilke, Werfel,” MLQ, iii (1942), and “Observations on Enumerative Style in Modem German Poetry,” PMLA, lix (1944).

^{Note 2 in page 517} Published in 1919; symbol henceforth: Md. Also the following anthologies will be repeatedly cited: Kameraden der Menschheit, ed. Ludwig Rubiner, 1919 (symbol: KdM); Verkündigung, ed. Rudolf Kayser, 1921 (symbol: Vk). Moreover, the reader will find in these collections many poems here quoted from original editions.

^{Note 3 in page 518} Citations, unless otherwise accounted for, will follow the Gedichte of 1923. Many poems contained in this volume also appear in the collections (likewise entitled Gedichte) of 1916 and 1925, or in the Gedichte des Landes of 1936.

^{Note 4 in page 518} Varied are accordingly also his literary affinities. “Ich will der Bauer vor dem Dorfe sein” and “Heidefrühling” recall Rilke and Däubler respectively; “Sohn an Vater der Jugend” (Vk) rather closely parallels Werfel's “Vater und Sohn” (in Wir Sind).

^{Note 5 in page 518} Cf. Ilse Seiffert's thesis Landschaft und Stammestum in der westfälischen Dichtung, insbesondere bei Adolf von Hatzfeld (Bonn, 1938), which likewise stresses his complex character.

^{Note 6 in page 518} Cf. especially “Jugendbildnis 1913” and “Der Jüngling.”

^{Note 7 in page 518} Cf. also his novel Das glückhaft Schiß (1931), p. 39: “[…] Nur das Eine fühle ich, daß alles Eins ist, Sonne, Erde und Mond, Morgen und Abend, der Tag und die Nacht, alles ist Eins, Leben und Tod […]” [Dots in brackets indicate omissions; without such, they belong to the original text.]

^{Note 8 in page 519} The latter symbol is frequently used by Whitman; cf., e.g., “To Old Age,” and especially “As Consequent, Etc.” (“[…] All, all toward the mystic ocean tending”).

^{Note 9 in page 519} Cf. also “Der Abschied,” fifth stanza.

^{Note 10 in page 521} Cf., e.g., Werfel's “Ich bin ja noch ein Kind” (Wir sind) and, for the first four lines of the above quotation, the latter's Der Gerichtstag.

^{Note 11 in page 521} Cf. also “Du bist das Zeichen”:

^{Note 12 in page 521} In “Westfalenballade,” again, the revolt against God appears in the form of titanic vitalism:

^{Note 13 in page 522} References are to the second edition (1923).

^{Note 14 in page 523} The lack of punctuation suggests a breathless, ecstatic breaking down of all separating barriers.

^{Note 15 in page 524} Such blasphemous tirades are a favorite motif of Otten's; cf. also “Für Martinet,” iv in Md.

^{Note 16 in page 524} “Für Martinet,” ii (Md).

^{Note 17 in page 524} “Des Tagdomes Spitze” (Md; also in a longer form under the title “Die Waisenkinder” in KdM).—Enumerations of suffering occur in Whitman's Leaves, though with an entirely different temper (cf. pp. 181 ff. of the first article cited in note 1 above). In German expressionism it becomes a regular stock-in-trade; see, e.g., Goll's “Wassersturz” and Zech's “Die neue Bergpredigt,” i, both in Md.

^{Note 18 in page 524} Cf., e.g., “Die Engel” (Md, KdM).

^{Note 19 in page 524} Cf. Soergel, Dichtung und Dichter der Zeit, Neue Folge (1926), pp. 372 f.

^{Note 20 in page 524} Cf. my article “Motifs of Cultural Eschatology in German Poetry from Naturalism to Expressionism,” PMLA, lviii (1943), p. 1155.

^{Note 21 in page 525} Cf. also “Die Stimme” (Md).—Be it noted that, in contrast to the revolutionary resentfulness of most activists, Rubiner includes scholars, generals, publicity managers, etc., in the redeemed human brotherhood.

^{Note 22 in page 525} At the opposite pole is Werfel, with his radical distrust of the word. Cf. my article “The Development of Werfel's ‘Lebensgefühl’ as Reflected in his Poetry,” GR, vi (1931), p. 44.

^{Note 23 in page 526} Cf. the beginning of “Der Marsch” (KdM).

^{Note 24 in page 526} Über den Expressionismus in der Literatur und die neue Dichtung (1919). The above references are found on pp. 26, 67, 34 ff. respectively.

^{Note 25 in page 526} I cannot agree with Stammler when with regard to expressionism he states (Deutsche Literatur vom Naturalismus bis zur Gegenwart [1927], p. 101): “Was alle Dichter zusammenhält, ist allein das gemeinsame Lebensgefühl.” This can be accepted only if the expressionistic “Lebensgefühl” is reduced to the common denominator of emotional intensification as such, regardless of direction and content; and even then we must distinguish between a deeply experienced new pathos and the bathos of hysterical rhetoric.

^{Note 26 in page 526} First ed. 1911; quoted according to the second ed., 1914 (p. 17).

^{Note 27 in page 527} All quotations are, in the absence of a statement to the contrary, from the Gedichte of 1920, whose text is often more significant for our purposes than that of Ehrenstein's later collection Mein Lied (1931; symbol: ML).

^{Note 28 in page 528} Cf. also “Die weiße Zeit,” where he finds in woman “das Nichts, zu gutem Fleisch gestaltet.”

^{Note 29 in page 528} Cf. the orgiastic blasphemies, alternating with self-revilements, in “Briefe an Gott” (ML).

^{Note 30 in page 528} One hesitates to quote such inanities. But the contemporary critics took Ehrenstein seriously, Soergel takes him seriously (op. cit., pp. 457 ff.). H. E. Jacob (Verse der Lebenden [1924], p. 19) predicts that many of his poems will live and finds himself unable to include specimens in his anthology only on account of the author's insistence that no less space be allotted to him than to any other poet. De luxe editions of his works were printed and the Insel-Verlag, S. Fischer, and Georg Müller were among his publishers.

^{Note 31 in page 530} A solipsistic attitude is quite compatible with the fin de siècle conception of “das unrettbare Ich.” All things dissolve into impressions made upon the sensory, functional Ego; but the metaphysical substantiality of the latter is denied, its status as a thing per se.

^{Note 32 in page 531} “Erich,” in Sie und die Stadt (1914; symbol henceforth: SudS).

^{Note 33 in page 531} “Ich log mich um mein Menschentum,” in Verbannung (1919).

^{Note 34 in page 531} “Lied im Abend,” in Die Preisgabe (1919). Cf. also “Birke, auflodernde Güte” in M. Sommerfeld's Deutsche Lyrik 1880–1930 (1931) and “Trostlied der bangen Regennacht” in Soergel's Kristall der Zeit (1929).

^{Note 35 in page 532} “Morgenlied,” in SudS. Cf. also “September” and “Aschermittwoch-Couplet” in Einsame Stimme (1924).

^{Note 36 in page 532} “Die Dame, die an der Zirkuskasse sitzt, denkt” (SudS).

^{Note 37 in page 532} “Der grenzenlosen Stunde Wunder” (Die Preisgabe).

^{Note 38 in page 532} “Golgatha der fruchtlosen Revolution” (Im Stern des Schmerzes, 1924).

^{Note 39 in page 532} Cf. above note 36.

^{Note 40 in page 533} Cf. the poem “Warum müssen meine Hände welk werden….”

^{Note 41 in page 533} Title of a poem.

^{Note 42 in page 533} Cf. “Erich,” “Und über meine Stirn streicht deine Hand …,” “Ich folge deinen Füßen …,” “Aufschrei,” resp.

^{Note 43 in page 534} “Ein Leben mit Leni” (1929), from the posthumous aftermath Mir bleibt mein Lied (1942)

^{Note 44 in page 534} The earliest suggestion of disjunctive enumeration we have, as far as I am aware, in Hofmannsthal's “Ballade des äußeren Lebens” (first printed in 1896), to which Professor Ernst Feise kindly calls my attention. A haunting mood of transitoriness and futility prevails throughout. In forlorn separateness the children, the fruits, the wind, the streets, the places (full of torches, trees, ponds) appear side by side.—The letters of the youthful Hofmannsthal show him preoccupied with the problem of ontological oneness; he has a “sense of the infinite mutual interpentation of all things” (Briefe 1890–1901 [1935], p. 130), he is “strongly convinced of the unity of the world” (ibid. p. 165; both dicta belong to the year 1895). Enumeration occurs only very sporadically; with a conjunctive function we find it especially in “Psyche” (1892, in the Nachlese der Gedichte of 1934). On the other hand, there is in him also a deep distrust of life as meaningless, as infinitely difficult, treacherous, malevolent (Briefe 1890–1901, pp. 76, 113); it is this mood that is reflected in “Ballade des äußeren Lebens.”—In the case of “Vorfrühling” (first printed in 1892) it would be hard to decide whether its enumeration is more conjunctive or disjunctive.

^{Note 45 in page 535} A forerunner of this type would seem to be Ernst Blaß's (b. 1890) “Sonntagnachmittag” (in Die Straße komme ich entlanggeweht and in the early expressionistic anthology Der Kondor, both 1912).

^{Note 46 in page 535} Cf. “Das eine Mal” (in Soergel's Kristall der Zeit): “So stirbt, was eben war, und ist vorbei,/und, was du heut noch hältst, ist morgen fort.”

^{Note 47 in page 535} “Ich hab dir, Liebste, manches abzubitten….” Similarly, in “Welteinsamkeit” (1925, in Mir bleibt mein Lied) an enumeration leads up to the lines: “Und jedes bleibt allein mit seinen Schwingen/und trachtet, rascher durch das All zu ziehn,” while in “Das winterliche Grauen” (1932, ibid.) we read: “Feindselig flüchten Wagen, Mensch und Tier/argwöhnisch vor einander […].”

^{Note 48 in page 536} Other examples, with varying degrees of pictorial unity, occur throughout the second and third parts of Sie und die Stadt (cf. especially “Neißer Markt” “Vormittag im Stadtpark,” “Früher Lenz”), furthermore in Einsame Stimme and Mir bleibt mein Lied.

^{Note 49 in page 536} A particularly clear example of “accidentalism” appears at the end of “Das Wunder,” which after lengthy enumeration winds up:

^{Note 50 in page 537} I am not sure whether Herrmann himself has surrealism in mind when at a later date he speaks in retrospect of the poems of Sie und die Stadt as having “ein überrealistisches Mehr” (Mir bleibt mein Lied, p. 11).

^{Note 51 in page 537} Cf., e.g., “Verregneter Sonntag,” “Im Vollmondglanze” and “Bilder eines holländischen Bades” in Um uns die Fremde (1936).

^{Note 52 in page 537} Title of a poem in Letzte Gedichte.

^{Note 53 in page 537} Cf. “Der falsche Magier” (1937) and “Spätes Sommerglück” (1935) in Mir bleibt mein Lied, “Zuversichtliches Liebeslied” (1939), “Wandlungen” (1940) and “Christbaum-Verse für Leni” (1940) in Letzte Gedichte.

^{Note 54 in page 538} Lichtenstein fell at the beginning of the First World War.—All our citations follow vol. I of the posthumously published Gedichte und Geschichten (1919).

^{Note 55 in page 538} Cf. also “Spaziergang”: “Mir ist, als ob mein Körper die ganze Erde wär.”

^{Note 56 in page 538} Cf. also “Nebel.”

^{Note 57 in page 538} “Der Sturm” and “Prophezeiung” enlarge on the theme of world-destruction in the form of a peculiarly grotesque apocalypse. Cf. p. 1170 of the article mentioned above in note 20.

^{Note 58 in page 538} For this type of enumeration cf. also the first of “Die fünf Marienlieder des Kuno Kohn,” where the beloved is not found present in an indiscriminate assortment of objects.

^{Note 59 in page 539} This poem is in the Gedichte followed by an entire group of similar ones. On p. 4 the poet designates his friend Jakob van Hoddis (b. 1884) as the originator of the type. The latter, however, retains a more definite thematic unity than do, frequently, Herrmann and Lichtenstein.

^{Note 60 in page 539} Our discussion is based on the first edition (1919) of the collected Dichtungen. Use has been made of various essays in the volume Erinnerung an Georg Trakl (1926; symbol: E). Not very satisfactory is Werner Meyknecht's thesis Das Bild des Menschen bei Georg Trakl (Münster, 1935), which operates extensively with the terminology of existential philosophy.

^{Note 61 in page 539} “Das Problem einer vergleichenden Geschichte der Künste,” in Philosophie der Literaturwissenschaft (ed. Emil Ermatinger, 1930), p. 216.

^{Note 62 in page 540} I give one example for many: “Aus dunklem Hausflur trat/Die goldne Gestalt/Der Jünglingin/Umgeben von bleichen Monden./Herbstlicher Hofstaat,/Zerknickten schwarze Tannen/Im Nachtsturm,/Die steile Festung./O Herz/Hinüberschimmernd in schneeige Kühle” (“Das Herz”). Occasionally grammatical coherence is completely discarded: “Leise rollen vergilbte Monde/Über die Fieberlinnen des Jünglings,/Eh dem Schweigen des Winters folgt” (“Helian,” iii; this reading in all editions).

^{Note 63 in page 540} This includes Dunkel, dunkeln and various compounds; the same principle applies to the other items. The figures represent minima, since occasional oversights are almost inevitable in a rapid count.

^{Note 64 in page 540} It seems significant that 24 of these occurrences of wild belong to the (shortest) third and last part of the Dichtungen, representing the period when Trakl is rapidly approaching mental derangement and physical self-destruction. (In his account “Über die Anordnung der Gesamtausgabe von Trakls Dichtungen” [E] the editor, Karl Röck, informs us that the arrangement follows approximately the chronological order of the poems.)

^{Note 65 in page 541} Cf. E, p. 106. Trakl came, incidentally, from an old Protestant family in Salzburg.

^{Note 66 in page 541} Cf. E, pp. 59 f.

^{Note 67 in page 541} Trakl uses “steinern” as a standing attribute with “Stadt.”

^{Note 68 in page 541} Adolf Meschendörfer has published an article on Trakl and Rimbaud in the Transylvanian periodical Klingsor (ii, 1925); no copy seems to be available in this country. Cf. also E, pp. 60 f.—An obvious point of similarity between the two poets is their predilection for color adjectives and color symbolism. In basic temperament they are, of course, worlds apart.

^{Note 69 in page 541} Cf. Emil Barth, “Georg Trakl,” Die neue Rundschau, xlviii (1937), pp. 57 ff.

^{Note 70 in page 541} “Bread and wine” appear throughout Trakl's poetry as symbols of an harmonious, innocent, earth-bound existence (cf. Hölderlin), but at the same time with transcendental, sacramental implications.

^{Note 71 in page 541} This entire poem is enumerative.—“Geschwister,” “Schwester” is another of Trakl's recurrent motifs, frequently appearing with a haunting suggestion of incest. Cf. Barth, loc. cit., pp. 60 f.

^{Note 72 in page 542} Cf. the phrase “die bösen Blumen des Bluts” (“Traum und Umnachtung,” part 3).

^{Note 73 in page 542} It is interesting to note that Trakl strongly resented Whitman's mundane optimism (E, pp. 105 f.).

^{Note 74 in page 542} Especally clear examples of the latter type, apart from those discussed in this paper, are also “Trübsinn” and “Drei Blicke in einen Opal.”

^{Note 75 in page 543} An “es ist” series also occurs in “De Profundis.” Rimbaud similarly uses “il y a” in “Enfance,” iv (Les Illuminations).

^{Note 76 in page 544} Blue is not only Trakl's most frequent, but also his favorite color; he applies it to almost anything if his mood calls for it. There are several occurrences of “blaues Wild.”

^{Note 77 in page 544} Mahrholdt (E, p. 62) interprets “Erscheinender” as an adverbial comparative; it may, however, be intended as a gen. plur., dependent on “Schritte.”

^{Note 78 in page 544} I count over forty occurrences of such nominal use, with or without the indefinite article, of adjectives in the neuter singular. The usage derives from Hölderlin, as Ernst Bayerthal shows in his thesis Georg Trakls Lyrik—Analytische Untersuchung (Frankfurt a.M., 1926), p. 58.

^{Note 79 in page 544} Cf. also “Psalm” (italics below are mine):

Die fremde Schwester [1] erscheint wieder in jemands bösen Träumen [… ] Der Student, vielleicht ein Doppelgänger, schaut ihr lange vom Fenster nach. Hinter ihm steht sein toter Bruder, oder er geht die alte Wendeltreppe herab. Incidentally, the last line (if “er” refers to the brother, as it would appear to do) breaks down the distinction between life and death. For Trakl's sense of timelessness cf. Mahrholdt (E, p. 47).

^{Note 80 in page 544} Of the thirty-four volumes and pamphlets by Becher with which I am familiar—there are others besides—the following will be cited in this discussion: Die Gnade eines Frühlings (1912), De Profundis Domine (1913), Verfall und Triumph (1914; volume I contains poetry, volume ii prose; symbol henceforth: VuT), An Europa (1916; AE), Verbrüderung (1916; Vb), Päan gegen die Zeit (1918; PgDZ), Das neue Gedicht (selections, 1918; NG), Gedichte für ein Volk (1919; GfeV), An Alle (1919), Gedichte um Lotte (1919), Um Gott (1921), Verklärung (1922), Hymnen (1924), Am Grabe Lenins (1924), Roter Marsch—Der Leichnam auf dem Thron—Die Bombenflieger (1925), Maschinenrhythmen (1926), Die hungrige Stadt (1927; used: 2nd ed., 1928), Ein Mensch unserer Zeit (selections, 1930), Der große Plan, Epos des sozialistischen Aufbaus (1931), Deutschland (1934), Gewißheit des Siegs und Sicht auf große Tage (1939; symbol: GdS), Wiedergeburt (1940), Dank an Stalingrad (1943).—Poems contained in NG will normally be quoted according to the text of that volume.

^{Note 81 in page 544} Dates of publication would on the whole avail little in establishing dependencies, since there was doubtless a considerable amount of personal contact and oral exchange among the members of the movement, especially in the groups around publishing houses such as those of Ernst Rowohlt and Kurt Wolff.—Parenthetically I would remark that in “Der Wald” and “Berlin” (both in VuT and NG) I detect stylistic similarities to Däubler, in “Verkündigung,” ii (Gedichte um Lotte), to Gottfried Benn's peculiar mixture of medical and metaphysical parlance with classical allusions. “Kinderkreuzzug” (PgdZ) even recalls Stefan George, except for the end, whose grotesque imagery points more in the direction of Georg Heym. Finally, it remains to be remarked in this connection that Becher's hymnic poems (Um Gott, Hymnen) are rhythmically patterned on those of the latter Hölderlin, in that extreme enjambement tends to terminate the line in the midst of a grammatical unit, often separating prepositions and even articles from their nouns.

^{Note 82 in page 546} Cf. “Maria” in Die Gnade eines Frühlings. This first lyrical production is highly revealing in its innocuous triviality: “Weiße weiße Wölkchen im blauen Kleid,/heiße heiße Köpfchen … Frühlingszeit!” (p. 26). In the light of such platitudes the artificiality of Becher's subsequent rant stands out all the more clearly.

^{Note 83 in page 546} This cycle appeared separately in 1913 and was in the following year incorporated (with some changes) in VuT. Our quotations follow the later text.

^{Note 84 in page 546} Cf. on one hand “Die große Stunde,” iv, in which four consecutive lines in spaced type begin with the words “das Kreuz,” on the other, “Die Armen,” in which tortures to be inflicted on God are described with much sadistic detail. Praise of the Virgin survives in the eleventh “De Profundis” poem; finally, for good measure, we have the typically Werfelian theme of the redemption of God by man (“Krankenhaus,” i, also in NG).

^{Note 85 in page 546} We are reminded of Rubiner (cf. above note 21) when Becher includes even the hated class enemy in his millennium of brotherliness; cf. “Getötetem Freund, Vermächtnis ster, benden Soldaten” (iv: “An den General”) and “An den Tyrannen” (both in Vb, NG)-also “Der Sozialist” (NG, p. 146).

^{Note 86 in page 546} Cf. pp. 1159 ff. of the article previously mentioned in note 20.

^{Note 87 in page 547} “Gedichte für ein Volk,” in the volume of that name and NG.

^{Note 88 in page 547} Cf. below p. 550.

^{Note 89 in page 547} Cf. for Becher “De Profundis,” x (VuT, i) and “Oedipus” (Vb, NG), for Herrmann “Terzinen über das schmerzhafte Thema ‘le fiasco‘” (pt. 2) and “Meines Vaters Schatten hinkt vor mir her….” (both in Sie und die Stadt).

^{Note 90 in page 547} The text in NG is less explicit.—For Becher's attitude towards Whitman cf. also “Die Schlacht,” vi, in NG (“Ja, hätte ich beinahe gesagt, ich übernehme für dieses Jahrhundert Dein Kommando”); furthermore: Anna Jacobsen, “Walt Whitman in Germany since 1914,” GR, i (1926), 138 f. and Harry Law-Robertson, Wall Whitman in Deutschland (Gießener Beiträge zur deutschen Philologie, xlii, 1935), pp. 80 f.—Later, in exile, Becher fancies a comparison between himself and Dante (cf. “Jalta,” xii, and the “Dante” cycle in Wiedergeburt).

^{Note 91 in page 547} The basic escapism of Becher's pathos—if indeed it need be proven—is indicated by lines such as these (“Café, ii, in VuT, i):

^{Note 92 in page 548} “Die Insel der Verzweiflung” (Md, KdM). Cf. “Trauer” (VuT, i; NG): “Ich will demütig-fromm im ewigen Meer zerfließen.” On the other hand, the island motif sometimes represents reconciliation, idyllic peace; cf. “Gedichte für ein Volk” in the volume of that name and NG.

^{Note 93 in page 548} Cf. also “Der In-sich-Verbrennende” (ibid.): “Gemeinschaft: da alle Kreatur einst sein wird/Geeint in dem Vollendet-Einen […]”

^{Note 94 in page 548} “Traum-Finsternis,” “Ein Leichenschmaus oder: Hymne auf die Herrschenden,” “Der Säufer,” ii.

^{Note 95 in page 548} “Note the obvious rudiments of the pre-expressionistic (”neoromantic“) type of decadence.

^{Note 96 in page 550} Cf. e.g., “De Profundis,” ix (VuT, i) and p. 13 of the prose “De Profundis” (VuT, ii).

^{Note 97 in page 550} Cf. also “Ebenhausen” (AE), where the various European capitals sing in chorus.

^{Note 98 in page 551} Cf. also “Der Sozialist” (NG, p. 143): “Städte tauchen in Städte.”

^{Note 99 in page 551} Cf. also “Kino,” ii (ibid.).

^{Note 100 in page 552} Baroque traits in German expressionism are discussed by Ferdinand Jos. Schneider in chapter v of his excellent treatise Der expressive Mensch und die deutsche Lyrik der Gegenwart (1927); for Becher see especially pp. iii f. For enumerations in the German Baroque period cf. the introduction to the first of the two articles mentioned above in note 1.

^{Note 101 in page 552} Cf. also, e.g., “Die Kothölle” and “Die Sommerhölle” (PgdZ), “Deutsche Ostern 1923” (Maschinenrhythmen).

^{Note 102 in page 552} “Levkojen,” “Plätze” etc. seem to be genitives; Becher frequently uses such constructions.

^{Note 103 in page 553} Cf. also especially “An die Geliebte” (GfeV). The bulk of “Hymne an Rosa Luxemburg” (An Alle) consists of ecstatic epithets heaped upon the revolutionary heroine's hands, mouth, ears, forehead and eyes. Generally speaking Becher, here as elsewhere, lacks sufficient breath to sustain very long enumerations; he cannot compete, e.g., with Hofmannswaldau (cf. “Beschreibung vollkommener Schönheit” and “Lob-rede an das liebwertheste Frauenzimmer” in vol. ii of Deutsche Literatur, Reihe Barocklyrik, ed. Herbert Cysarz).—For the expressionistic identification of body and landscape in general see Schneider, op. cit., pp. 64 ff.

^{Note 104 in page 553} Cf., e.g., “Herbstgesänge,” v (VuT, i; NG) and “Verbrüderung” (PgdZ).

^{Note 105 in page 554} Note the complete lack of punctuation, suggesting that all separating barriers are broken down. Similarly chaotic are “Musik des Abschieds” and the prose piece “Klänge im Vor-Laut” (ibid.).

^{Note 106 in page 554} Cf. especially p. 310: “Gegen Abend war es [… ]” Naumann rightly singles out this poem in his Deutsche Dichtung der Gegenwart.

^{Note 107 in page 555} Cf. also “Zehn Jahre Sowjetunion” in Die hungrige Stadt and pp. 66, 178 of Der große Plan.

^{Note 108 in page 555} “Jalta” (xiv) in the collection with the significant title Wiedergeburt (1940). Cf. also “Seit damals” in Gewißheit des Siegs und Sicht auf große Tage, a volume of sonnets (some of them in alexandrines!).

^{Note 109 in page 555} Cf., e.g., in Dank an Stalingrad (1943), “Fragen,” “Hymne an die Schönheit,” and the second part of the poem from which the collection takes its name

^{Note 110 in page 555} Cf. the poem “Reichsgericht und Messegelände” (in Deutschland, 1934):

As late as 1933 Guido K. Brand in his Werden und Wandlung (p. 504) calls Becher the “sprachgewaltigste” poet of his entire generation.

^{Note 111 in page 555} Comparable are the cases of Lenz and Goethe, Sudermann and Hautpmann. Novelty of style invariably tends to obscure differences of value.

^{Note 112 in page 556} Cf. especially his essay “Vom Wesen der neuen Sachlichkeit” in Jahrbuch des Freien Deutschen Hochstifts for 1930.

^{Note 113 in page 556} Cf. my article “Expressionism and Post-Expressionism in German Lyrics,” GR, ix (1934).

^113a I can now add (in proof) Paula Ludwig's (6.1900) “Mit der Ackerwinde …,” in Das Gedicht-Blätter für die Dichtung, v, 8 (1939).

^{Note 114 in page 557} His poetic publications are: Herz auf Taille (1928; symbol: HaT), Lärm im Spiegel (1929; LiS), Ein Mann gibt Auskunft (1930; EMgA), Gesang zwischen den Stühlen (1932; GzdS) and the anthology Lyrische Hausapotheke (1936; LH).

^{Note 115 in page 557} Cf. “Jahrgang 1899” and “Elegie mit Ei” in HaT, “Kurzgefaßter Lebenslauf” in EMgA, all of which, in various ways and in various degrees, show an enumerative tendency.—In a peculiar manner this cynical mood contrasts with the harmlessness of Emil und die Detektive (1929) as well as of some other stories, both for children and adults, in a similar vein.

^{Note 116 in page 557} “Prosaische Zwischenbemerkung” (LiS); cf. also the preface to LH.

^{Note 117 in page 558} Cf. also “Die Zunge der Kultur reicht weit” (HaT). “Sogenannte Klassefrauen” (EMgA, LH) enumerates conceivable absurdities of fashion.

^{Note 118 in page 558} Cf. “Ansprache einer Bardame” and “Die Hummermarseillaise” (HaT), “Gedanken beim Überfahrenwerden” (EMgA, LH).

^{Note 119 in page 559} In concluding our brief discussion of Kästner I would draw attention to the perfect example of disjunctive enumeration with which he introduces the reader to his novel of disillusionment and frustration, Fabian, die Geschichte eines Moralisten (1931): “Fabian saß in einem Café namens Spalteholz und las die Schlagzeilen der Abendblätter: Englisches Luftschiff explodiert über Beauvais, Strychnin lagert neben Linsen, Neunjähriges Mädchen aus dem Fenster gesprungen, Abermals erfolglose Ministerpräsidentenwahl, Der Mord im Lainzer Tiergarten, Skandal im Städtischen Beschaffungsamt, Die künstliche Stimme in der Westentasche, Ruhrkohlenabsatz läßt nach, Die Geschenke für Reichsbahndirektor Neumann, Elefanten auf dem Bürgersteig, Nervosität an den Kaffeemärkten, Skandal um Clara Bow, Bevorstehender Streik von 140000 Metallarbeitern, Verbrecherdrama in Chicago, Verhandlungen in Moskau über das Holzdumping, Starhembergjäger rebellieren. Das tägliche Pensum. Nichts Besonderes.”

^{Note 120 in page 559} Cf. Hofmannsthal's “Ballade des äußeren Lebens” (see note 44 above):

^{Note 121 in page 559} “Der oft im Walde noch gesungen.” This poem, as well as “Herbstliche Stanzen” in the following, is found in Anthologie jüngster Lyrik, Neue Folge, ed. Willi Fehse and Klaus Mann (1929).

^{Note 122 in page 560} This little volume, apart from the poems in Anthologie jüngster Lyrik, is the only material that I have been able to locate in this country.

^{Note 123 in page 560} Cf., e.g., Herrmann: “Du wirst (vielleicht) mir doch noch Gattin werden” (“Ich hab dir, Liebste, manches abzubitten,” in Sie und die Stadt)—and Kalenter: “Ein Kellner (stumm) serviert” (“Kabarett,” in Der seriöse Spaziergang).

^{Note 124 in page 561} The same disregard for causality, the same Aneinandervorbeireden likewise characterize Belzner's prose narrative Marschieren nicht träumen (1931).

^{Note 125 in page 561} They also abound, though without so clear disjunctive implications, in the author's novel Kolumbus vor der Landung (1934).

^{Note 126 in page 561} Note the enumeration of things conspicuous by their absence!—May a few especially striking examples further illustrate the principle of alogicality. Incongruity both of association and motivation is apparent when Anna thus addresses the jeweler (pp. 110–111):

God is described as wearing sky-blue pantaloons and being “heilig und verbrämt” (p. 15), Anna as shedding “kostbare Tränen eines Antiquars” (p. 115), while Iwan's beard is accounted for by his being “ekstatisch wie ein Bürger” (p. 58).

^{Note 127 in page 563} Cf. also: “So nah der Welt und so verloren fern” (p. 124)—“Gott ist so ferne oft, Gott ist so nah” (p. 161).

^{Note 128 in page 563} But with characteristic inconsistency it is also referred to as “selig” (p. 36).

^{Note 129 in page 563} And these vestiges are purposely retained to make chaos complete to the point of nonsensicality. Thus, despite the author's nihilism, allusions to a future redemption and reunion of existence can creep in, as when on p. 35 the childhood motif continues:

On the other hand, a return to absolute non-existence seems to be suggested when on p. 52 all divine salvation is denounced as futile until “alle Dinge ihres Todes sterben.” Cf. also p. 63 (“O reiner Tod des vollen Untergangs”).

^{Note 130 in page 564} Cf. also p. 91: “[… ] warum das Leben so gespenstisch singt.” And Iwan addresses the world as “du Kaiserreich meiner Gespenster” (p. 150).

^{Note 131 in page 564} In this connection it is perhaps pertinent to recall that also in such a paradigm of romanticism as Tieck's Der blonde Eckbert the events take place in a magical dream world, to a considerable extent haphazardly and without rational motivation.

^{Note 132 in page 565} Cf. pp. 69–70, 101–104, 106–107, 133–134, 154–156.

^{Note 133 in page 565} Note the repetition of this item.

^{Note 134 in page 565} Note, in the last four lines, the extensive enumeration within the enumeration. Even more elaborate in this respect are the series on pp. 101–104, 106–107, 133–134 and 162–163.

^{Note 135 in page 566} Cf. above, note 1.