The Penguin Book of German Verse (German Edition)

This collection moves from medieval lyrics and ballads to the Protestant hymns of the 16th century, to the great explosion of German literature with Goethe and Schiller, taking in the isolated genius of Hoelderin, and then on to late 19th-century naturalism, the post-World War I expressionists, and several notable poets in this century, including Loerke and Bertolt Brecht. Demonstrating the unusual and exciting way German poetry has evolved, this volume of poems illustrates how, at times, traditions seem to have been lost and then re-created, while many of the poets included here - Weckherlin, Opitz, Klopstock, Goethe, Hoelderin, Rilke, Trakl - seem to start afresh in a way no English poet has done since Chaucer.