An Introduction to the Poetry of Johannes Bobrowski

NotesDas innere Reich, 4. Heft, 1943/4, pp. 351–354.“Johannes Bobrowski,” Schriftsteller der Gegenwart, hrsg. Klaus Nonnenmann (Olten und Freiburg i. B., 1963), pp. 51–57.“Dichtung gegen Angst und Tod,” Eckart Jahrbuch 62/63 (Witten und Berlin, 1962), pp. 205–208.“Bobrowskis Widmungsgcdiehte,” Neue Deutsche Hefte, 103 (Januar, Februar 1965), 60–77. I have not been able to consult Eric Standacrt's study, “Johannes Bobrowski: Een inleiding tot zijn poezic,” Diagram, II, I, 35–54.“Versuch übcr Lyrik und Sprachbau,” Strukturen. Essays zur deutschen Literatur (Göttingcn, I963), pp. 172–196.“Deutsche Lyrik der anderen Seite in unserem Deutschunterricht,” Der Deutschunter richt, XIV (1962), 3, 88–105.Lyrik heute (Gütersloh [1963]), pp. 22lff. and passim.Hrsg. Hermann Kunisch (München, 1965), p. 111.Sarmatische Zeit (Stuttgart, 1961), also is an East German edition containing an additional poem: Sarmatische Zeit (Berlin: Union Verlag, 1961); and Schattenland Ströme (Stuttgart, 1962). These three volumes are cited as SZ, SZU, and SS, respectively.Levins Mühle (Frankfurt, 1964); Mäusefest und andere Erzählungen (Berlin, 1965), and Boehlendorff und Andere (Stuttgart, 1965).Poems from the following sources are quoted: Akzente, 1/1963; Eckart Jahrbuch 62/63; Neue Rundschau, LXXIV (1963), 1. These are cited as A, E, and NR, respectively.Neue Deutsche Literatur, X (1962), 9, p. 141.Grimm, Strukturen, pp. 193f., alludes to this briefly, but offers only a very limited discussion.Widerspiel. Deutsche Lyrik seit 1945, hrsg. Hans Bender (München, 1962), p. l60.Schriftsteller der Gegenwart, p. 54.Paul Celan also uses the word “spiclen” in a poem which deals with the creative process. Cf. James K. Lyon, “The Poetry of Paul Celan: An Approach,” Germanic Review, XXXIX (1964), p. 62.Lyrik heute, p. 221.Schriftsteller der Gegenwart, p. 55.This represents one point of similarity between Bobrowski's nature poetry and his poems which are addressed to actual persons, most of whom were wanderers or exiles, e.g., Villon, Dylan Thomas, Aleksis Kivi, Gongora, Else Lasker-Schüler, Mickiewicz, and Joseph Conrad.According to Jokostra, Eckart Jahrbuch 62/63, pp. 206f., Bobrowski, though “unkonventionell” and “undogmatisch,” is a deeply religious man and has not broken with Christianity. This does not necessarily conflict with the condemnation in his poetry of past failures on the part of representatives of the Christian religion or the exhortation to act in the cause of peace rather than wait for God to solve the problem

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