The lonely autumn
The autumn of the lonely is a poem by Georg Trakl .
shape
The poem is the eighth and last poem of the eponymous section in the cycle of poems Sebastian im Traum , published posthumously in 1915 by Kurt Wolff Verlag, Leipzig. It is divided into three stanzas. The stanzas are rhymed and each consist of six lines of verse. The rhyme scheme is the cross rhyme , since the last words of every second line always rhyme ("Abundance - Days - Cover - Saying - Silence - Questions"). The meter is iambic Five lifter with female Kadenze . The rhythm is very slow and regular, the rhythm is only broken in the fifth line of the third stanza, where three lifts meet (“The pipe rustles; there is a bony horror”). Enjambements can be found in the fifth line of the first and second stanza and in the third line of the third stanza. The abundance of alliterations ("full of fruit and abundance", "the flight of birds", "the cloud wanders over the pond", "the farmer's calm gesture rests", "the pipe rustles") and assonances ("from old legends ”,“ The mild silence ”,“ from the blue eyes ”) make the poem sound.
The lonely autumn
The dark autumn returns full of fruit and abundance.
Yellowed sheen from beautiful summer days.
A pure blue emerges from the dilapidated shell;
The flight of birds resounds from ancient legends.
The wine is pressed, the mild silence
filled with soft answers to dark questions.
And here and there a cross on a desolate hill;
A herd is lost in the red forest.
The cloud wanders over the pond mirror;
The farmer's calm gesture rests.
The evening blue wings
move very softly. A roof of dry straw, the black earth.
Stars soon nestle in the weary brow;
A quiet
and humble return enters cool rooms . Angels emerge softly from the blue
eyes of lovers who suffer more gently.
The pipe rustles; There is a bony horror,
When the black dew drips from the bare willows.
interpretation
“The Fall of the Lonely” is a typical Trakl poem. In his work the moods and colors of autumn predominate, dark images of evening and night, dying, death and passing away with a possible premonition of the First World War. The title (“The lonely autumn”) already contains two important motifs: autumn and loneliness.
Color symbolism
Trakl uses a lot of adjectives used as attributes (“Yellowed shine from beautiful summer days”). With the help of the color adjectives he strengthens the mood. The dominant colors are red, blue and black, whereby they get darker and darker towards the end. ("In the red forest", "the evening blue wings", "the black earth"). Red , the color of pulsating life, blue stands for calm ("The farmer's calm gesture is resting."), And black for death.
Loneliness and death symbolism
Autumn has taken hold of the landscape, and winter is not far away. The calm rhythm corresponds to the images evoking silence and tranquility (“The farmer's calm gesture rests”, “A quiet, modesty returns to cool rooms”). This mood is evoked by linguistic images (“The dark autumn”) and metaphors (“full of fruit and abundance”). The “yellowed sheen of beautiful summer days” and the “red forest” give an idea of the falling autumn leaves. One remembers the past ("The flight of birds sounds like old legends"), while the "bare pastures" herald the coming winter. The mild silence is “filled with quiet answers to dark questions”. The "cross on a dreary hill" may be the answer to the question of what comes after death.
The night is approaching (“Stars will soon be nesting in the weary brow”) and the mood becomes gloomy (“there is a bony horror”). The mood of the poem becomes darker with each stanza, which is due to the increased use of dark vowels. Of the silvery sheen in the second line (“Yellowed shine from beautiful summer days”), there is no longer any trace of the seventeenth line with its rustling and crunching consonants (“The pipe rustles; there is a bony horror”). The cross is a strong motif for melancholy and mourning: a symbol on the one hand for death, but also for the hoped-for redemption. Death shows itself in the pictures of dead nature: “dry straw”, “from the bare pastures”.
The autumn of the lonely makes the reader sad and also thoughtful. The perceived loneliness is contrasted with the lesser suffering of lovers. However, despite the heavenly accompaniment by angels, no open joy is ascribed to them either. But love helps people to accept their fate (“And angels step softly out of the blue eyes of lovers who suffer more gently”).
reception
In 2009 an album by the dark metal band Eden Weint Im Grab was released under the title "Der Herbst des Einsamen" with lyrics based on Trakl.
literature
- Walter Hinck : Stations of German Poetry. From Luther to the present. 2nd edition Göttingen 2002, ISBN 3-525-20810-3 , pp. 129-130.
- Nikolai Schuchhardt: Depiction of death and afterlife fantasies in the poetry of Georg Trakl. Phil. Diss. Marburg 2006. (PDF; 4.75 MB).