Today's world art
The political poem “Today's World Art” was written by the German poet Friedrich von Logau (1605–1655) in 1654 during the Baroque period . It deals critically with the characters of the time. It pursues the goal of clearing up social grievances and, if possible, improving them.
text
- Today's world art
- A nders be, and appear differently:
- Talk differently, mean differently:
- Praise everything, wear everything
- All feign, ſtets comfortable,
- Give sails to all winds:
- To serve the good and bad:
- All doing and all doing
- Just focus on one's own benefit;
- Who I want to do
- Kan Politiſch is called this year.
-
modernized:
- Today's world art
-
modernized:
- Be different and seem different
- Talk differently, mean differently;
- Praise everything, wear everything
- Hypocrite all, always comfortable,
- Give sails to all winds,
- To live subserviently to the good and evil;
- All doing and all writing
- Just focus on your own benefit:
- Whoever wants to do this
- Can be called political this year.
Form and content
The only stanza of the poem consists of 10 verses. Meter is a four- lever trochee that ends with a male cadence . In his poem, Friedrich von Logau uses the stylistic devices of classical rhetoric , as they have been developed in European intellectual history since Aristotle , and which were particularly valued and used in Baroque literature. The poem itself is about being and appearing, human nature, egoism, character traits and values that can be achieved or criticized.
interpretation
Verse 1
Different means to be different, to be something special. The “and” in this context can be interpreted as the connection between appearance and being, between these there is a minimal or no difference. In keeping with the Baroque era, appearance means being the same, you acted differently than you were, for example wearing wigs and lots of make-up. The two alliterations , the anaphor , the epipher , the parallelism , the pleonasm and above all the paradox , which underlines the apparent contradiction in the first verse, refer to this .
Verse 2
Verse 2 implies that people often do not represent their own opinion or what is right and important. Talking and saying are separated by a comma, but should mean the same thing. The visual separation makes it clear that this was not the case in the Baroque era. Only the epochal ideals should be lived, this can be seen in the alliteration, the anaphor and the parallelism, which on the one hand connect the two words, but on the other hand isolate them.
Verse 3
The "praise everything, bear everything" in verse 3 means that one agrees to what one does not represent, that is, to lie to oneself and to agree to the "wrong". The people in the baroque were guided by absolutism, so they themselves had nothing to say and also represented what they did not like. Positive verbs are shown negatively in context. Alliteration, anaphor, hyperbole, irony and parallelism reinforce this contradiction effect.
Verse 4
In the next verse, “to hypocrite everyone” means something like sneaking in on everyone and accepting lies. “Always comfortable” in the context of feeling comfortable on the surface always and everywhere. Despite the Baroque era and the Thirty Years' War that went with it, it should seem like everything was perfect. Hypocrisy is a word with negative connotations and "comfort" is more likely to be associated with the word discomfort. This can also be proven with the hyperbole and irony occurring in the verse. The lyrical self makes fun of this obvious falsehood.
Verse 5
In verse 5 "to give sail to all winds" means something like giving fire or a foundation to every rumor, if you open the sail in any wind, it can break. The dishonesty and the apparent glamor of the baroque are also evident here. The syntactically very old-fashioned verse contains an allegory, a hyperbola, an ellipse and a symbol. On the one hand, these deepen the general criticism of Baroque society, but also clearly show the symbols of the Baroque and represent them, so seafaring in the Baroque era stands for danger, but also for freedom.
Verse 6
In verse 6 it becomes clear that in the Baroque era it was irrelevant whether one served him good or bad, according to absolutism it was only important that one served him. "Life" in this context means a whole life, this thesis is supported above all by the syntactically old-fashioned formulation and the numerous stylistic devices. There is an allegory, a metonymy, an oxymoron, a paradox, a personification, an antithesis and an ellipse. By emphasizing the values valid in the baroque era, a subliminal criticism becomes clear.
Verse 7
In verse 7 the forced submission becomes clear again, but also the deliberate "teasing" of stories, so to decorate one's life a little. "Tichten" is a word change and means something like to dense, other stylistic devices are an alliteration, an anaphor, an antithesis, a neologism, an oxymoron and a paradox. These reinforce the resounding criticism.
Verse 8
Because of absolutism, the egoism of the baroque becomes clear in verse 8, it is about only caring for oneself and not caring for others. To question the old-fashioned way of thinking, a syntactically old-fashioned word order is used.
Verse 9
In verse 9, diligence means something like identifying, i.e. being able to identify with the image of the Baroque reflected in the poem. The image of the baroque is kept very negative and is emphasized negatively in verse 9 by stylistic devices such as a hyperbola, an inversion, an irony and a neologism.
Verse 10
In verse 10 a kind of conclusion is drawn as to who can identify with the character image of the Baroque and agrees with the appointed features, "can be called political this year", means who can identify with the Baroque and was only "bad" enough, he can also become a politician at this time. Another criticism of the Baroque is that only those who submitted could become successful and powerful. Stylistic devices for this are an inversion, an alliteration, an antithesis related to the whole, an irony and a paradox.
Enough
In summary, one can say that the poem "Today's World Art" criticizes the culture of the baroque. Friedrich von Logau only uses indirect criticism by using irony, hyperbole and paradox as often as possible. With reference to the above-mentioned hypothesis, it can be said that the suspected social criticism has been confirmed, but not the suspected attempts at improvement. “Today's world art” is rather an atypical poem for the Baroque era, since, unlike other poems, it does not deal with “ memento mori ”, “ carpe diem ” and “ vanitas ”, but deals with social criticism. The poem is addressed to the poet's contemporaries, but as far as its criticism of political culture is concerned, it is of general validity and topicality.
Web links
- Today's world art on gedichte-lyrik-poesie.de
Individual evidence
- ^ Deutscher Sinn-Getichte Drey Tausend , Breßlaw, 1654, p. 210, No. [8] 71 Today's world art
- ↑ Friedrich von Logau: Today's world art. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on July 9, 2013 ; Retrieved June 5, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
