DE PROPRIETATIBUS LITTERARUM edende curat C. H. VAN SCHOONEVELD Indiana University Series Practica, 7 FORM IN THE MENSCHHEITSDÄMMER UN G A Study of Prosodie Elements and Style in German Expressionist Poetry by ROBERT P. NEWTON University of North Carolina at Greensboro 1971 MOUTON THE HAGUE · PARIS © Copyright 1971 in The Netherlands. Mouton & Co. Ν. V., Publishers, The Hague. No part of this book may be translated or reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publishers. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER 77-147934 Printed in Hungary ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to express my thanks to Professor William H. McClain of Johns Hopkins University for his interest and assistance in the completion of this study. A special debt of gratitude is also owed to the late Professor Ernst Feise for his encouragement as well as his numerous suggestions and critical comments. The Research Council of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro has very generously granted material aid. Last but not least of all, I am indepted to my wife, Fides, for her invaluable assistance in reading proofs and preparing the index. CONTENTS Acknowledgment 5 Reference Abbreviations 10 Numerical References to Poems in the Menachheitsdämmerung 11 I. The Critical View of Form in Expressionist Poetry 13 1. Introduction 13 2. "Form" as a Motif in the Menschheitsdämmerung 16 3. Critical Views on Form in Expressionism 22 a. Form in Expressionist Criticism 25 b. Form in Expressionist Practice 30 (1) The Formlessness of Expressionism 31 (2) The Forms of Expressionism 36 4. Current Views on Form in Expressionism 39 5. The Problems of Expressionist Form 43 6. Critical Utility of such a Survey 44 7. State of Form Study in Expressionist Research 47 II. Who or What is Expressionism? 61 1.The Problem of 'Expressionism' 51 2. Attempts at Definition 56 a. Definition by Motif 57 b. Definition by Style Characterization 59 c. Definition by Representative Poets 62 d. Definition by Historical Period 65 3. The Menachheitsdämmerung as a Basis for Form Study ... 67 a. Testimony for the Menschheitsdämmerimg 69 b. Possible Bias in the Menschheitsdämmerung 73 c. Consideration of Other Anthologies 76 4. Conclusion 77 8 CONTENTS III. The Use of Conventional Verse Elements in the Menschheitsdäm- merung 79 1. Conventional Verse Elements 79 2. The Use of the Stanza in the Menschheitsdämmerung 86 a. The Quatrain 87 b. The Sonnet 92 c. The Triad 101 Excursus I: The Triadic Form of Georg Traici 108 d. The Distich (Two Line Stanza) 112 Excursus II: Else Lasker-Schuler's Distich Form 114 e. The Multiline Stanza 116 (1) The Five Line Stanza 118 (2) The Six Line Stanza 120 (3) The Seven Line Stanza 122 (4) The Eight Line Stanza 124 (5) Stanzas of Nine and More Lines 126 f. Stichic Verse 127 Excursus III: Expressionism and Stichic Verse 129 3. The Use of Meter in the Menschheitsdämmermig 132 a. The Metric Feet 136 (1) The Iamb 136 (2) The Trochee 137 Excursus IV: August Stramm's Trochaic Meter 138 Excursus V .-Georg Heym's Emphatic Meter and the 'Vision- ary' Quatrain 142 (3) Dactylic and Anapestic Verse, and the Stricter Free- Rhythms Based on Them 146 Excursus VI : Loose Trochaeo-Dactylic Meters-Heym, Tralci, Lasher-Schüler 149 b. Linear Foot-Number 156 (1) Line Length in General in the Menschheitedämmerung 158 (2) Rhythmic Consequences of a Longer Verse Line 159 (3) Metabolic Lines 161 Excursus VII: Expressionism and the Lied 162 Excursus VIII: The Expressionist Ballad 168 Excursus IX: August Stramm—Stress and Line Length as Style Elements 170 4. The Use of Rhyme, Assonance and Alliteration in the Mensch- heitsdämmerung 172 a. Views on Rhyme in Expressionism 174 b. General Rhyme Practice in the Menschheitsdämmerung. ... 177 c. Rhyme Types 185 (1) Rhyme Schemes 185 (2) Free Strophes and Irregular Rhyming 188 (a) Rhyme-Disformation in the Poem 188 CONTENTS 9 (b) Rhyme-Disformation in the Stanza 190 (o) Madrigal Rhyming (Free Rhyming) 190 (d) Free Strophes 193 (e) Occasional Strophic Variations 197 (f) Rhyming Sections 197 (g) Occasional Rhyming 198 (3) Interior Rhyme 199 (4) Masculine and Feminine Rhymes 202 (6) Rhymelessness 204 d. Assonance and Alliteration 205 (1) Assonance 207 (a) Assonance as Rhyme Irregularity 208 (b) Assonance Used to Link Verses 209 (i) Schematic Assonance 209 (ii) Unschematic Assonance as a Means of Structural Unity 211 IV. Interpretive Guidelines 219 1.The Use of Formal Elements in Expressionist Lyrics 219 a. Conventional Verse Forms 220 b. Free Rhythms 222 c. Tendency to Formlessness 224 d. Formal Dissolution 226 2. Some Popular Verse Elements and Verse Forms 230 3. The Formal Principle of Unresolved Tension 232 a. Basic Expressionist Critical Notions 232 b. Devices of Unresolved Tension 239 (1) Thematic Devices and Language 239 (2) Formal Devices 240 (a) Compositionally Unresolved Tension 241 (b) Textural Unresolved Tension 243 4. Perspective: Post-Expressionist Formal Tendencies 247 Bibliography 255 Key to Poem Numbers and Index 261 REFERENCE ABBREVIATIONS Several anthologies of poetry are referred to frequently throughout the text; the work and page number will be indicated in parentheses directly after the reference, using the following abbreviations: MD Menschheitsdämmerung : ein Dokument des Expressionismus, ed. Kurt Pinthue, Rowohlts Klassiker der Literatur und Wissenschaft, Deutsche Literatur, Vol. 4 (Reinbek bei Hamburg, 1969); "Mit Biographien und Bibliographien neu herausgegeben von Kurt Pinthue." This is a republication encompassing all the poems contain- ed in the first four (slightly varying) printings of Menschheits- dâmmerwng : Symphonie jüngster Dichtung (Berlin, 1920). LdeJ Lyrik des expressionistischen Jahrzehnts : von den Wegbereitern bis zum Dada (Wiesbaden, 1955). LdE Die Lyrik des Expressionismus, ed. Clemens Heselhaus, Deutsche Texte, No. 5 (Tübingen, 1956). VdL Verse der Lebenden: Deutsche Lyrik seit 1910, ed. Heinrich Eduard Jacob (Berlin, 1927).