ModernGermanLiterature18801950

FROM BAHR TO DEHMEL 121

only his fellow-men but inanimate nature: the mist that folds him on
the heath - his 'dear brother'; the starveling pines in the heather-
blue Prussian sand - his 'comrades'. He grieves for the decay of
all he loves, grieves even for the decay of grief, and knows that he
is one of a hard new race that makes a cool reckoning with exis-
tence. He is not an easy poet: the meaning of his verse1 is often
embedded under a crust of far-fetched imagery. He has regional
consistency in his depiction of North German landscapes: skies
ever grey brood over plains where the hard wind, a grey minstrel,
strikes his grey music from bone-white beeches. This impression-
istic rareness of imagery gives a mannered effect to his prose2; but
he is one of those who have renewed the Novelle by the infusion
of personality.

1 Wanderschaft (1911); Die heimliche Stadt (1921); Der langste Tag (1926);
Pansmusik (1929; second edition of Gedichte, 1916); Atem der Erde (1930);
DerSilberdisteIwald(i9$ti;Der Waldder Welt (1936); Die Abschiedsband(iw<j).

2 Short stories: Vineia (1907); Das Goldbergwerk (1919); Der Chimarenniter
(1919); Der Prin% undder Tiger (1920). Novels: Der Turmbau (1910); Der Qger
(1921). Essays: Zeitgenossen aus viehn Zeiten (1929).