ABSTRACT
In the first Max poem, sensuous concreteness is sacrificed to a willed and abstract allegory. Though both poems: "Max One," "Your Turning Year" are presented as addressing Maximin, "Year" was actually inspired by Robert Boehringer, the Swiss youth whom Stefan George met only after Maximin's death. Listeners will find the first Maximin poem beautiful, provided they don't know German. Calling Maximilian Maximin was not merely abbreviating a German name but evoking a Roman one. Both poets were passionately sincere in idealizing Maud Gonne and Maximilian Kronberger. Their shared disillusionment with social commitment is summed up in this William Butler Yeats couplet: And also in this George couplet against German mass patriotism and militarism in World War I: Both specialized in conveying god-intoxicated ecstasy. They did this most effectively not through abstract verbal denotations but through connotations of sound. And this with uncannily similar: rhythms, not often found in other poets.
