Singing from the child

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Gesang vom Kindchen is - according to the subtitle - an idyll by Thomas Mann from 1919. The text deals with life with his youngest daughter Elisabeth, born in 1918, and is written in hexameters . It is the only work by the great prose writer still known today, in which the most personal is revealed in the form of “poetic song”. The first publication appeared in the magazine "Der Neue Merkur" in Munich in April and May 1919, in book form at S. Fischer Verlag together with the Idylle Herr und Hund in one volume in the autumn of the same year.

Emergence

The song of the child was written in a period of less than six months (Mann's diaries date the first decision to write on September 14, 1918, the completion of the manuscript on March 6, 1919), which is considered a time of regeneration and inner contemplation may be rated. The collapse of the German monarchy left Mann confused, almost angry; During this phase of turning away from current political events, his idylls emerged, which explains why the singing of the child was valued as "private fun" (Kurzke), which was created as a pure finger exercise before work on the magic mountain was resumed. Mann's villa in Munich became a kind of refuge, which is referred to when he quotes Goethe at the beginning . ("We turn, just as the world delights, / The narrowness that alone makes us happy.")

content

The song of the child consists of nine chapters: In the "intent" the speaker (in the song of the child in personal unity with the author himself) provides a justification for his turn to verse form and a brief introduction to the nature of the hexameter. “Life things” describes the sentiments of the 42-year-old who unintentionally becomes a father again and now feels the joy of this event more intensely than when his first children were born and therefore describes it in detail. “In der Morgen” and “Das Mal” provide an insight into scenes of private domesticity, which - like the rest of the song about the child - are modeled on reality: the child is bathed and fed, his needs determine the course of everyday life in the Munich villa of the Mann family. Their relationships determine the content of the following chapters “Little Sister” and “The Conversation”, in which the siblings and ancestors of the child and husband are presented in a fatherly and loving way of dealing with the late-born. "Disease" describes the otitis of Kindchens and its treatment. “Vom Morgenlande” opens the child’s genealogy; Mann always assigned his Jewish mother to the Orient , whose attributes he recognizes in her appearance and those of his daughter. He also remembers his trip to Italy; the city of Venice reminds him of both his north German hometown Lübeck and the world of the Orient. Finally, "The Baptism" describes in detail the domestic celebration on the occasion of Elisabeth Mann's baptism on October 23, 1918 by Kuno Fiedler as well as the guests and the two godparents Ernst Bertram and Günther Herzfeld-Wüsthoff (the latter was not actually present at the baptism).

meaning

What is remarkable about the singing of the child is the way the man handles the German hexameter. His verses have so far received little attention in research and provoked negative reviews from contemporary reviewers. According to the rules of metrics , Mann's verses are flawed, but this is by no means proof of poetic ineptitude - the 58 verses of the first chapter are metrically correct. Mann's version of the German hexameter is subject to its own order and function: "He comfortably holds the middle between singing and understanding words". The aim is to synthesize prose and poetry. On the one hand, the metrical structure of the verse has to be loosened so as not to hinder the flow of the narrative, on the other hand, the rhythm of the hexameter gives Mann's sentences a lyrical format. The syntactic principles of order outweigh the lyrical ones. Sometimes metrically correct verses are not found as autonomous lines of verse, but as joined sub-clauses between the punctuation marks of successive lines. Numerous enjambements also help ensure that the text can be read and heard as a coherent narrative rather than a poem. In addition, Mann combines stylistic features of the heroic verses of Homer with consciously prosaic-modern vocabulary.

Remarks

  • To date, only one monograph on the song of the child has appeared in literary research literature : “The very last Homeride?” By Paul Ludwig Sauer. However, Sauer ignores the metric form of the work. Likewise with Kissler, who regards the little child's song as an allegory, but not as an allegorical poetry, and allows himself some mistakes in describing Mann's hexameters.
  • What wonder if Kurzke goes into several places on the idyll in which Thomas Mann once hexametres ? The idyll affects Kurzke's theme: life as a work of art.
  • The pathos, brought in by the bound form, collides with the chosen theme “Father's love for the baby that is just Ah! and since! babbelt ”with those text passages that specifically concern everyday baby life. Anyone who appreciates Thomas Mann will still gain an insight into his private sphere while reading, and climb the stairs through the Munich villa with the father, the baby in his arms, as it were. In addition, the text can be read as one of the testimonies to the German state of mind after the collapse of the monarchy in 1918.
  • Mann commented on the poem itself. Goethe's Hermann and Dorothea were his role models . After the war, the singing of the child is the product of a deep need for turning away, peace, serenity, love and warm humanity ... the need for the permanent, untouchable, unhistorical, sacred, and if I was concerned with immersing myself in this element, I was really serious about the idyll and the spirit of the hexameter.

Footnotes

  1. ^ Vaget, p. 584, 14th Zvu
  2. ↑ However, Renner (Renner, p. 626, 21. Zvo) doubts the author's qualification as a “metric poet” (source, p. 100, 10. Zvu).
  3. ↑ These closing remarks from Goethe's campaign in France refer to a life situation that is not unlike that of Thomas Mann at the end of the First World War. Both poets are in their early forties and both have had the most intense experience of war in their lives.
  4. ↑ Peter de Mendelssohn: The magician. The life of the German writer Thomas Mann . Second part: years of limbo. 1919 and 1933, Left Chapters, Register. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 1992, ISBN 3-10-049405-9 , pp. 43 .

literature

  • Wiebke Buchner: Song of the Child (1919). In: Andreas Blödorn / Friedhelm Marx (ed.): Thomas Mann Handbook . Life - work - effect. JB Metzler, Stuttgart 2015, ISBN 978-3-476-02456-5 , pp. 153-154.
  • Peter de Mendelssohn (Ed.): Thomas Mann Diaries I 1918-21 . Frankfurt a. M., 1979
  • Thomas Mann in the Rupprecht Press Almanac for the years 1921-1922 : Letter to the Rupprecht Press. March 25, 1921
  • Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Campagne in France 1792 . Stuttgart, 1822.
  • Alexander Kissler In: Euphorion . Volume 95. Heidelberg, 2001. pp. 211-236.
  • Hermann Kurzke : Thomas Mann. Epoch, work, effect . Munich 1985. p. 134.
  • Hermann Kurzke: Thomas Mann. Life as a work of art . Frankfurt a. M. 2001. p. 661. ISBN 3-596-14872-3
  • Rolf G. Renner In: Helmut Koopmann (Ed.): Thomas Mann Handbook . Stuttgart 2001. pp. 625-628. ISBN 3-520-82803-0
  • Hans R. Vaget In: ibid, p. 584
  • Paul Ludwig Sauer: The very last homeride? Thomas Mann's "Song of the Child": Idyll and world spirit . Frankfurt a. M. 1986.

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