The Poetry of Hofmannsthal by Hugo von Hofmannsthal

First published:Ausgewaehlte Gedichte (Selected Poems), 1903; Die Gesammelten Gedichte (Collected Poems), 1907

Critical Evaluation:

All efforts to classify Hugo von Hofmannsthal as a member of a period or a literary school have failed. Terms such as romantic symbolist, neoclassicist, neo-romanticist, expressionist, aesthetician, mystic, or naturalist may all be partially true, but they are still insufficient to encompass his work. His success as a librettest for Richard Strauss operas has obscured his even greater contributions as a poet. Followers of literary fashions tended to ignore Hofmannsthal, who refused to be typified. The turn of the century “melting pot” atmosphere of Vienna—German, Italian, Slavic, Jewish—and Hofmannsthal’s own Jewish, German, and Italian parentage had considerable influence on his development. He was open to all manifestations of his surroundings, including all new literary trends. Needless to say, the psychological findings by his famous fellow Viennese citizens, most notably Freud, Jung, and Adler, were among those influences.

Hofmannsthal was born in 1874. During his last three years in high school he published his first poems under a pen name. As a student at the University of Vienna he had already gained fame as a poetical “Wunderkind.” Under his pen name, Loris, he became a member of the habitues in Vienna’s literary coffee-houses.

His early age was also his major period of poetic writings. The poems express some of the anguish of Goethe’s well known lament: “. . . If pain forbids a man to talk, God gave me the gift to speak.”

Many truly down below must perishWhere the heavy oars of ships arepassing;Others by the helm up there havedwelling,Know the flight of birds and starrycountries.

In the same poem the young Hofmannsthal also indicates his recognition of the interdependence of all things.

I can never cast off from my eyelidsLassitudes of long-forgotten peoples,Nor from my astounded soul can banishSoundless fall of stars through outerdistance.Many destinies with mine are woven;Living plays them all through one an-other,And my part is larger than this slenderLife’s ascending flame or narrow lyre.

In a Vienna coffeehouse he met Stefan George; a friendship developed, which led to his contribution in a literary magazine (“Blaetter fuer die Kunst”) published by George. George was greatly impressed by Hofmannsthal and wrote him: “You and I could have exercised a most beneficial dictatorship in literature for many years,” yet Hofmannsthal refused to become a follower of George’s strict concept of art for art’s sake, and he did not share the loyalty of George’s disciples known as the “George Circle.” The second meeting with George ended in an argument and a request for a duel by George. Later he was again invited by George to make contributions to his magazine, but in 1906 the correspondence came to an end. Hofmannsthal was too eager to study new developments to be concerned by only one literary point of view. Like Goethe before him, he tried to interpret his environment in terms of all available knowledge; however, the pace of expanding knowledge in Hofmannsthal’s time had accelerated to such a degree that any effort to obtain a true universal knowledge was bound to fail. His intensive readings of contemporary authors were not used to fortify a personal point of view, but rather to absorb more manifestations of the complexity of life. He did not build an ivory tower, as George did, with a priestly concept of poetry. His poetic effort always centered around the importance of life as a whole, and not as a selective process. Speaking about his poetry he stated: “How from any abyss of the world could it bring back anything more than human feelings, when poetry itself is nothing more than the language of men.” He admitted, that he experienced unusual states of exhaltation which he termed the “lyrical state,” but even under these conditions he remained on firm ground. His language is musical and graceful in style. Hofmannsthal is more easily accessible than George. Comparisons with Rilke and Verlaine are justified. Waterand water-related terms, such as river, well, fountain, and bridge, are his most favored symbols. His poem “Reiselied” is frequently compared to Goethe’s in style:

To engulf us waters eddy,Down the boulders roll, to crush,And to bear us off alreadyBirds on powerful pinions rush.

Poetry is not an easy task for a man who is subject to many influences. In his epigram, “The Art of Poetry,” he states:

Perilous, terrible art! This threadI spin out of my bodyAnd at the same time the thread servesas my path through the air.

By describing a landscape he expresses the reward he receives from his perilous and terrible efforts:

The breath of flowers spoke to him,but onlyOf alien beauty—and in silence heBreathed in the pristine air, but withoutlonging:Only the need of serving made himglad.

His desire to understand his contemporaries gave many liberal critics an opportunity to attack him as an imitator and to accuse him of trying to maintain the status quo of Austria. Conservatives were equally ready to reject him. Hofmannsthal considered himself as a patriotic Austrian, but he was thinking about Austria as a state with a cultural mission. Although the old Austrian universality was still in existence, it showed signs of disintegration. That Hofmannsthal retained his sanity during his efforts to diagnose all symptoms of the era, without being himself defeated by the virus of disintegration, is attributed mainly to his unwavering Catholic faith. In the field of religion he was inquisitive, and he read with particular interest William James’s THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE and Kierkegaard’s works; but the universality of the Roman Catholic Church and belief in the mystical body of Christ, which encompasses all that was and all that will be, made it possible for him to subordinate all other influences. The major crisis in his life became public knowledge when he permitted publication of the Chandos letter in a Berlin newspaper in 1901. This letter, addressed to Sir Francis Bacon and signed by Lord Chandos, was immediately identified as autobiographical. Hofmannsthal originally intended to address the letter to George, but he mailed him a copy instead. This letter speaks about his increasing skepticism and the fear that his analytical mind might paralyze his creative powers. He claimed, that he was not able anymore to speak coherently and that he had a physical aversion to words like spirit, soul, body. Under minute analysis, all assumptions seemed to him to be without foundation and therefore kept him from expressing an opinion on anything. Here he also gives evidence of his empathic power: “A pitcher, a harrow abandoned in a field, a dog in the sun, a neglected cemetery, a cripple, a peasant’s hut—all these can become the vessel of my revelation.” Word skepticism and work mysticism (his terms) were subjects close to him even before the Chandos letter. In 1895 he wrote that “people are tired of talking, they feel a deep disgust with words. For words have pushed themselves in front of things. This has awakened a deep love for all the arts that are executed in silence.”

Fortunately the Chandos crisis did not lessen his creativity. It may have had influence in leading Hofmannsthal from lyric poetry to the dramatic poetry which ultimately led to his work as a librettist. Yet many passages of his dramatic verse plays and playlets could fill volumes of lyrical poetry. The first play, LITTLE THEATER OF THE WORLD opens with the lines:

I bathed, till by the open window’sglareGlancing between my fingers I couldtellThat slantwise now the low sun’s rayswere fallingOn golden trees, long shadows gloomedthe fields.Now up and down I pace the narrowpath;Bird-catcher you would think me froma distance.

Hofmannsthal’s poems have also been compared to those of William Butler Yeats (“Crossway,” “The Rose,” “The Shadowy Water”). If it is true that lyrical drama survives as poetry but not as drama, the statement applies to Hofmannsthal as well as to Yeats. However, the case of EVERYMAN seems to represent an exception to this rule. The poetic and dramatic qualities of this play make it a perennial favorite at the Salzburg Festival and on many other famous stages. His earlier play DEATH AND THE FOOL, first presented in 1893, gives evidence of his ever-present lyricism:

Now the last mountains lie in gleamingshrouds,Clothed in the moistened glow of sunsteepedair.There hangs a wreath of alabastercloudsAbove, here rimmed with gold, greyshadows there:So once did Masters of past centuriesPaint clouds which bear Our Ladythrough the skies.

Opera lovers will be richly rewarded if they explore the poetic values of the librettos in the Strauss operas. It is not surprising that Strauss, who was describing a transitional period in musical terms, should be attracted by a poet who had inherited Romanticism and was trying to express feelings meaningful to the twentieth century. In 1929, while he was preparing for the funeral of his eldest son, who had committed suicide, a brain hemorrhage ended Holmannsthal’s life at the age of fifty-five.

It is too early for a verdict on Hofmannsthal by literary history. At present it seems that the names of his contemporaries, Rilke and George, are more frequently mentioned in German literature. But it is inconceivable that a poet who encompassed the diversities of two centuries should not gain a greater significance when the perspective from another century permits a more objective judgment. Hofmannsthal was always conscious of the transitoriness of all striving and of the indestructible relationship of all things created:

Then: that in lives a century old IshareAnd kinsmen laid in coffins long agoAre yet as close to me as my own hair,Are no less one with me than my ownhair.