The farmer to his noble tyrant

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The peasant to his serene tyrant is a poem by Gottfried August Bürger from the year 1773 in which a peasant accuses his tyrannical ruler and criticizes the absolutist arbitrary rule .

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In the poem, a peasant protests in a fictitious address to his prince against the oppression of his subjects and at the same time questions the ruler's claim to power:

Who are you, Prince, that
your cartwheel
may roll me up without fear , Your horse may smash?

Who are you, Prince, so that
your friend, your hunting dog, unblown,
may steal and throat in my flesh ?

Who are you that, through the seeds and the forest,
The hurray of your hunt drives me,
Exhales like the game? -

The seed, when your hunt is crushed,
What horse and dog and you devour,
The bread, you prince, is mine.

You prince did not, at Egg 'and Pflug,
did not sweat through the harvest day
Mine, mine is diligence and bread! -

Ha! you were the authority of God?
God gives blessings; you rob
You not of God, tyrant!

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With his poem, Bürger accuses tyrannical representatives of absolutism. In the last line of the poem he contradicts the idea of divine right .

Citizen manifests himself in Der Bauer an his serene tyrant as a representative of the politically and socially critical expression of the lyrics of Sturm und Drang . The peasant is one of the few truly revolutionary works within this literary movement. In other lyrical, dramatic or prose texts, criticism of oppression by the nobility is often made, but it often remains open whether this is only to be seen as an abuse of a lawful order in itself. This dichotomy becomes particularly evident in the various final versions of Schiller's Fiesco .

The accusatory character of the poem can also be seen in the renunciation of an ending rhyme , whereby Bürger ties in with Shakespeare, which was still little appreciated in educated circles in Germany at the time, and with antiquated poetry, whereas the end rhyme often uses courtly poetry, including the French classic (Molière, etc. .), was associated. This is paradoxical, however, insofar as the "common people" (e.g. in hymns) apparently liked or at least widespread the end rhyme in poems and was considered a typical feature of poetry. The paradox dissolves, however, when the renunciation of the end rhyme is interpreted as an expression of demarcation not only from the aristocratic, but also from the conventional understanding of poetry in general, including that of the common people, and the consciously new, or also the new awareness of this poetry thereby highlights.

literature

  • Walter Hinck : Stations of German Poetry. From Luther to the present day - 100 poems with interpretations . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2000, ISBN 3-525-20810-3

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