What is it
What it is is a love lyric poem by the Austrian poet Erich Fried , which gave the title of the volume of poetry Es ist was es ist ist , published in 1983 . It is the most popular and beloved poem by the actually political poet.
shape
The poem consists of three stanzas of different lengths. The first has four verses, the second and third stanzas eight. In the rhymed poem Fried pleads in a simple and unencrypted language for love that can prevail against reason , calculation , fear , insight , pride , caution and experience . The counter-arguments try to deny love of its legitimacy and stability: it is nonsensical , means misfortune and pain ; it is hopeless, ridiculous, reckless and impossible .
The poem gains suggestiveness through the prayer-wheel-like repetition of the tautological conclusion “It is what it is”. With this laconic formula, love overcomes all objections and opposing forces.
reception
“What it is” is an exemplary model of modern love poetry and has been used in almost all reading books and didactic studies to convey poetry since the 1980s . In her memoirs, published in 2008, the widow Catherine Fried wrote that she was not the addressee of the love poems.
The band Mia quotes the poem in their controversial song "Was es ist".
literature
- Erich Fried: It is what it is . Love poems, fear poems, anger poems. Wagenbach, Berlin 1996, ISBN 978-3-8031-3118-8 .
- Anna Mader: Erich Fried's collection of poems: "It is what it is" (1983). Creation, text analysis, reception . Thesis. Faculty of Philological and Cultural Studies at the University of Vienna, 2013 ( PDF file; 2463 KB ).
- Alexander von Bormann: On the humanity of tautology. In: Volker Kaukoreit (Ed.): Interpretations. Poems by Erich Fried (= Universal Library No. 17507. ) Reclam, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-15-017507-0 , pp. 51-60.
swell
- What is it. In: Poetry Calendar. Deutschlandfunk, February 6, 2010, archived from the original on February 11, 2010 ; Retrieved on February 7, 2010 (For copyright reasons, among other things, Deutschlandfunk is only allowed to offer the report on the Internet for seven days after it has been broadcast.).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Volker Weidemann: Loved by the Frog King. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 46 of November 16, 2008, p. 28.
- ↑ What is it? Neonationalist provocation!
- ↑ Carsten Schumacher: The Mia Conroversy. In: Intro. Intro GmbH & Co KG, January 22, 2004, accessed on April 20, 2018 .