ABSTRACT
In a characteristically provocative introduction to his bilingual anthology Twentieth-Century German Poetry, Michael Hofmann declares that 'for the size of their population' the Irish and the Poles, 'absolutely, without hesitation', have the best poets of the twentieth century. Hofmann of course knows that such pronouncements above all spark arguments. Hofmann's third founding father of German modernism is Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926). Among nine representative poems is 'The Ninth Duino Elegy', in which poets are deemed responsible for naming and telling. This long poem, with its philosophical implications (that were later elaborated by Heidegger), has influenced many European poets, particularly the French. Hofmann rightfully points out, however, that German poetry has had little impact on English and American poetry, though he concludes his introduction with suggestions on how it might. By the way, Hofmann's anthology consists nearly exclusively of verse, which makes the author wonder about the prevalence of short poetic prose in German literature.
