Bad time for poetry
The poem Bad Zeit für Lyrik by Bertolt Brecht deals with the writer's inner conflicts with regard to his exile life and the National Socialist dictatorship .
Context and form
The poem was written by Brecht in Denmark in 1939 . Brecht had been in exile since 1933, fled from the Hitler dictatorship. In Denmark, Brecht was confronted with the problems of exile, although as a writer he was primarily affected by the loss of the German-speaking area and thus of the public. In the conflict between the therefore touching helplessness and self-accusation of not being able to take active action against National Socialism, the poem Bad Time for Poetry was created . Above all, it deals with the question of the purpose of poetry in times of great historical crisis and thus takes up the motto of the second part of the poem cycle of Svendborg poems , which reads:
In the dark times
will there be singing too?
There will also be singing.
From the dark times.
Brecht had already completed the corrections to Svendborg's poems in 1938 and he did not include the poem in any of the collections later on.
Bad Time for Poetry is divided into six stanzas, each with a different number of verses. The poem is formally rhyming. There are only metrically unbound verses with any number of syllables. Brecht uses “ free rhythms ” throughout . Furthermore, the hook style predominates , which means that the context of meaning is carried beyond the line boundary with a few exceptions ( enjambement ). The lyrical self in this poem is certainly of an authentic nature - in other words: strongly biographically shaped, which is why the statement of the poem is to be understood as Brecht's view.
content
In the first of the five stanzas , the lyrical ego speaks of a society's natural claims to happiness and popularity. The second stanza speaks of an unsightly, crippled tree that stands on bad ground. All who see the tree "call it a cripple" (v. 6), but do not pay attention to the bad soil. In the third and longest stanza of the poem, the lyric self speaks of its state of mind. It does not see the many beautiful things around it, but can only see the grievances. For example, “the girls' breasts are warm as before” (v. 13), but the lyrical ego only sees “that the forty-year-old housewife walks crooked” (v. 12). In the fourth stanza it says accordingly that a rhyme in his poem seemed like arrogance to him (cf. v. 15/16). In the last stanza, the lyrical self directly addresses its inner conflict. It says that the enthusiasm for the blossoming apple tree and the speeches of the house painter (the derisive name of Adolf Hitler von Brecht) quarrel in him. However, only the second could make him write.
With the first stanza, the lyrical self acknowledges its claims to happiness and popularity by presenting them as correct. Of course, these claims are not covered in exile. Thus the position of the ego is clear. The personified tree in the second stanza indicates the physical and psychological exhaustion of the exiled writers. With this metaphor it becomes clear that the lyrical ego is aware of its position and yet suffers from self-doubt. “The passers-by” (v. 6), who call the tree a cripple, are supposed to be all those who look at the German exiles from outside and treat them condescendingly and do not see that the bad soil, i.e. Nazi Germany, is responsible for their predicament Location is responsible. There are many contrasts in the third stanza. The beautiful landscape of Denmark and the cracked yarn nets of the fishermen as well as the erotic charms of the Danish girls and the crooked housekeeper stand opposite each other. By claiming that the lyric self cannot see the beautiful things, only the grievances, it shows that it is not a good time for poetry. Where otherwise romantic and flowery language would be appropriate, Brecht writes in everyday language, which expresses his turn to reality. By disregarding beautiful things, Brecht wants to enlighten and point out that reality must be recognized. This is also the reason why he does not use rhymes. In the last stanza there is a drastic comparison of the enchanting landscape of Denmark and the horrific speeches of Hitler. By saying that only Hitler's speeches made him write, he solidifies the name of the poem. Because it's a "bad time for poetry".
Web link
- Text and Brecht photo ( memento from July 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive )