The friendship (poem)
The friendship is a poem written by Friedrich Schiller .
analysis
The poem has ten stanzas with six verses each. The stanzas begin with a pair of rhymes followed by a block rhyme.
background
The poem is integrated into a fictional correspondence between two young men. The youths invented by Schiller are essentially opposing people. Their names are Julius and Raphael. "Friendship" is a statement by Julius that is directed at Raphael. Schiller wanted to write a novel with these letters, which deal with truth, morality and the revolution of thought. But this did not happen.
content
The poem is about Julius having a friend.
- "[...] Out of millions have wound around you, And out of millions you are mine [...]"
That makes him happy
- "Happy! happy! I found you [...] ”.
A friend is like heaven on earth
- "[...] The sky is reflected in the friend's more charming gesture."
All tears and suffering are shed
- "Melancholy throws off the anxious burden of tears, sweetie from the storm of suffering to rest, In love bosom [...]".
A friend drives away loneliness and if there wasn't one, one would dream of it. Love, not hate, is divine!
- "We are dead groups - if we hate, gods - if we embrace ourselves lovingly!"
Regardless of whether they are educated or uneducated, everyone ends up going to death with their boyfriend in their arms
- "Arm in arms [...] From Mongolians to Greek seers [...] we billow [...] Until there in the sea of eternal splendor and dying submerge, measure and time-".
God is also bound to us in friendship, because he created like-minded people (friends) for us. But he himself is unique and infinite
- "[...] therefore he created spirits, Sel'ge mirror of his bliss - the highest being found no equal [...]".
reception
The reprint of the poem in Adolf Brand's magazine Der Eigen caused a scandal in 1903 because it was interpreted as a homoerotic hymn in this context.
literature
- Wolfgang Düsing: Up through the thousandfold steps. To Schiller's poem 'Friendship'. In: Karl Richter (ed.): Poems and interpretations. Vol. 2 <. Enlightenment and Sturm und Drang> (= RUB. No. 7891). Reclam, Stuttgart 2010 [first 1983], ISBN 978-3-15-007891-4 , pp. 453-462.
Web links
source
- Heinz Ludwig Arnold (Ed.): "Friedrich von Schiller." In: " Kindlers Literatur Lexikon ." 3rd, completely revised edition. 18 vols. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2009, ISBN 978-3-476-04000-8 , vol. 14 pp. 495–322 [biogram, 18 work articles and 2 work group articles].