SURREALISTIC TRENDS IN
NIKOLAUS LENAU'S POETRY
by
Marietta A. Alker
A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the
College of Humanities in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree
of Master of Arts
Florida Atlantic University
Boca Raton, Florida
June, 1974 SURREALISTIC TRENDS IN NIKOLAUS LENAU' S POETRY
by
Marietta A. Alker
This thesis was prepared under the direction of the candidate's thesis advisor, Dr. Ernest L. Weiser, Department of Languages and Linguistics. It was submitted to the faculty of the College of Humanities and was accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts.
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ii ABSTRACT
Author: Marietta A. Alker
Title: Surrealistic Trends in Nikolaus Lenau's Poetry
Institution: Florida Atlantic University
Degree: Master of Arts in Languages and Linguistics
Year: 1974
The nineteenth century Austrian poet Nikolaus Lenau used strange associations of words and ideas which are reminiscent of the bizarre combinations of realism and fantasy the surrealists used at the beginning of the twentieth century. Categories of surrealistic devices are set up, and surrealistic paintings and the poetry of Lenau are discussed using these guidelines.
iii CONTENTS
Page
ABSTRACT. . • • . . . • ...... • . . • • . . . • . . • ...... • • • • • • • . • . iii
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • . • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 1
CHAPTER II: SURREALISTIC TRENDS IN PAINTING AND IN POETRY...... 3
CHAPTER III: SURREALISTIC TRENDS IN NIKOLAUS LENAU'S POETRY...... 16
CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION...... 36
BIBLIOGRAPHY. • • • • • • • • . • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • . • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 3 9
LIST OF PAINTINGS. • . • . • • . • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • . • • 42
iv CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Hugo Schmidt makes the following statement in his book
Nikolaus Lenau: "Expressing the confined areas of his inner life,
Lenau created verbal equivalents that, in their haunting, and at
times, surrealistic quality, point far into the future." 1 Following
Schmidt's lead, the contemporary reader notes that Lenau used modern
techniques a long time before surrealistic literature became current.
In my thesis I intend to set up categories of stylistic devices
used by the surrealists and then discuss them in the context of
surrealistic painting and poetry and of some of Lenau's works. In most instances I shall only quote the passages which best illustrate
the above mentioned stylistic devices and not the whole poem. When discussing surrealistic trends in Lenau's poetry, I shall put those passages of French surrealistic verse which show the same technique
into the footnotes.
It is not my intent to claim that Lenau was a surrealist. But
several of his poems have surrealistic overtones that result from stylistic devices that are unusual in nineteenth century poetry.
Lenau's poems remind one of what George Schmidt, the director of the
Basel Kunstmuseum, discusses in referring to the surrealists:
"Surrealistic art becomes a one-sided conversation, a
1Hugo Schmidt, Nikolaus Lenau (New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1971), p. 34.
1 2
2 soliloquy delivered into a tragic void." What Lenau shares with the surrealists is this "tragic void," Hugo Schmidt's "verbal equivalents," and the technique of combining reality and fantasy.
The linking of unrelated words or images is another feature
Lenau and the surrealists have in common. By fusing two or more conventional elements Lenau and the surrealists often found new ways to express their feelings. Thus they enriched the vocabulary and brought new beauty to poetry.
There is no evidence of a direct influence of Lenau upon the surrealists. It is my intent to show through this thesis that he may be considered one of those early artists who are "better appreciated in the light of surrealism,which can be credited with having blazed a trail retrospectively for them."3
2George Schmidt, "What has the Art of Psychotics to Do with Art as Such," Insania Pingens (Basel: Published by Cibal, 1961), p. 19.
3william Gaunt, The Surrealists (New York: Putnam Publishing Company, 1972), p. 30. CHAPTER II
SURREALISTIC TRENDS IN PAINTING AND POETRY
Surrealism developed in France during the first half of the
twentieth century. It first affected painting and later literature, sculpture and even photography. The writer Andre Breton became the leader of the movement and explained and defended it in his Manifeste du Surrealisme. 1 Breton worked informally with the writers Eluard,
Aragon, Desnos, Peret, and Artaud, and the painters Ernst, Ray, Mira,
Dali, Magritte, Tanguy, and Chagall.
What makes surrealistic art unique is the mood it creates.
William Gaunt states in his book The Surrealists that "by using fantastic and macabre effects, dreamlike situations, and the revela- tion of that source of marvel they consider the subconscious mind to be, the surrealist artists create a lonely and macabre atmosphere 2 that is immediately distinguishable from other art forms." In his book The History of Surrealism, Maurice Nadeau expresses the view that surrealistic man has a conflict between his rationality and his subconscious. He feels that the subconscious,which can only be explored in dreams is the true source of man's actions. 3 But the surrealists never entirely turned away from the world of their
lAndre Breton, Manifeste du Surrealisme (Paris: Pauvert, 1962).
2 Gaunt, p. 7.
3Maurice Nadeau, The History of Surrealism (New York: The Macmillian Col, 1965), p. 48.
3 4
conscious perceptions and only linked these perceptions with their
dream imagery. The representation of this world of fantasy was the
new element which took the place of accurate nature descriptions which,
according to Louis Aragon, was done better by photography. 4 The
artistic aim of the surrealists was to establish a perfect balance
between the exterior world and their own state of mind. The works 5 they created were called "meteors of imagination" by Salvador Dali.
In relating the conscious and the subconscious the surrealists
arrived at a new logic which stemmed from their readiness to combine
contradictory elements. This new logic may be translated into the
following list of artistic devices which I have conceptualized in
such a way as to provide a basis for the comparison of Lenau and the
surrealists:
1. The combination of abstract and concrete qualities.
2. The association of words and phrases not normally
associated.
3. The placing of fragmentary images into an unrelated
environment.
4. The putting of objects from the different realms of reality
and illusion into close proximity.
5. The combination of different states of mind or dimensions
of existence; e. g., the visible and invisible and the
actually present and that which is present only in the
4Louis Aragon, "Painting and Reality," as quoted in Anna Balakian, Surrealism: The Road to the Absolute (New York: E.P. Dutton and Co., Inc., 1970), p. 175.
5Ibid. 5
fantasy through the intensity of desire.
6. The creation of mental or inner landscapes, pictures that
compel the viewer or reader to turn inward, because the
portrayal of the outer world is bereft of clues or
orientation.
7. The creation of sudden sensations and impressions, that
is of flashing images.
Bizarre, fantastic pictures often result from the strange associations found in the works of the surrealists. The atmosphere of strangeness also leads to feelings of unconnectedness and alienation which in their extreme turn into sensations of cruelty and horror. The fragmentary images in unrelated environments often engender a feeling of dehumanization since the connection is broken between man and his customary milieu.
Since surrealism first appeared in painting, this medium will be the first to be discussed. In most of the surrealist paintings a combination of abstract and concrete qualities can be found. It is best demonstrated in Yves Tanguy's works, especially in the painting
Il faisait ce gu'il voulait. This is a mystical vision where everything seems to be in suspended animation in the semi-light of an atmosphere that is reminiscent of an arctic sunset. We find here an apocalyptic aspect of the universe with a tiny man in the background. This solitary human figure appears to be trying desperately to escape his loneliness. This is indicated by the imploring manner of his outstretched arms which are encircled by ribbons. He seems to sense the quality of doom that hangs over 6
the hostile landscape with its self-contained shadows. The hopeless ness of the human figure is underscored by the complete absence of any other human life and of any trace of warmth. The man appears to be giving way to the conical, geometric form and to an octopus-like mollusk which loom in the foreground .and may survive human life.
There is a quality of unearthliness contained in this work which develops from the fusion of a realistic man and a dream setting.
Associations of concepts which are usually disassociated can be found in Rene Magritte's Le Modele rouge. A foot and a boot, which are usually separate entities, are fused here to create a new object. At first glance we think that we have two boots in front of us. Further investigation reveals the perfectly realistic toes, and we have to accept the fact that our new objects start out as feet and end up being boots. In Marc Chagall's Time is a River without
Banks we find the wings of a bird and a human hand attached to the body of a fish. These three elements, which we do not usually associate, were used by the artist to fabricate a new configuration which follows no laws of perspective. Unusual objects, like Chagall's strange fish, demonstrate total creativity and the surrealistic trend to depict fantastic unity by associating formerly separated concepts.
The placement of fragmentary images into an unrelated environ ment can be seen in Max Ernst's L'Oeil de Silence. In this work the artist startles his audience by haphazardly placing several eyes into the rock. These eyes and the girl sitting in the right bottom corner are the only connection with reality. Although the artist's imagination draws these pictures from nature, the shapes are changed, and all the forms mingle freely. The colors are drab and devoid of 7 warmth. The forms melt into each other and seem to flow from the concrete to the abstract. The eyes, fragments of the human element, dominate the cold, fresco-like atmosphere of the painting.
Dualities like immediacy and remoteness, reality and illusion, actual absence and emotional presence are portrayed in Salvador
Dali's Apparition of Face and Fruit Dish on a Beach. "Apparition" is the proper term to describe the merger of a fruit-dish and a face. Wistful craving would best describe the vision of the face of someone absent in an otherwise quite unrelated environment. The reality of a beautiful face is just the painter's illusion, for his beloved is actually absent and present only through the intensity of his longing.
The creation of grotesque pictures can be seen in Max Ernst's
Elephant of Celebes and Joan Mira's Head of a Woman. These are absurd-looking phenomena which are vast, perfectly concrete and plainly alive, although their shapes are not reminiscent of any human or animal form. Salvador Dali's Legrand Masturbateur also belongs to this category of bizarre images and is almost like a tellurian image in its hugeness and foreboding quality.
Tanguy is the master of "mental landscapes" where the lack of external cohesion in the portrayal causes the viewer to turn inward and establish bearings in his soul. These paintings inspire profound emotions of infinite longing in the spectator through scenes where twilight drowns out light and phantom-like human beings stretch out their beribboned arms for physical contact. In Genese a steep dune rises at the left against gray gusts of color. The illusion of 8
limitless space is heightened by the drifting clouds and the small
woman walking on an apparently endless tightrope. We pass from
"realism" into the sheer creation of mood, because of the subdued
lighting effect. Gray gusts of color underline the cold , detached
quality of the entire work. Rene Magritte's La Reconnaissance infinie
could also be conceived as a "mental landscape." The somber mountain-
ous scene appears to be an imaginary landscape, for it is detached and
lies in suspended animation. The tiny man seems realistic but he is
completely dominated by the vastness of the landscape. The
characteristic quality of these works is a certain sterility and
consequent dearth of clues as to direction, size, and distance.
The creation of "new" living beings by fusing characteristics
of the mineral, vegetable, and animal worlds creates a mood of terror
in surrealistic art. These living beings, by their detachment and colossal appearance , i nstill terror into the viewer who is used to descriptive techniques . The loneliness and the atmosphere of doom which hang over the surrealistic landscapes also add to the feeling of terror. Here cruelty lurks in the unfeeling and impersonal nature where man has to make his way without love and God. Even though not "God-fearing," the surrealists practiced an ex tra-religious mysticism which Pierre Reverdy expressed in the following statement:
One can believe in God without loving him .•. but one can love him without believing in him - with a love insane, rebellious and strong, loving all that he might have been if he could have been.6
6Pierre Reverdy, Le Livre demon Bord (Paris: Mercure de France, 1948), p. 151, as quoted in Balakian, p. 102. 9
For the surrealist,God remained a "could have been," and in
his search for the metaphysical, he tried to recapture the infinite.
With reference to the paintings mentioned before, one may be reminded
of Pierre Reverdy ' s beautiful lines about the new surrealistic
reality through the perception of objects:
If man disappears, the earth remains, the inanimate objects, the stones in the road. If the earth disappears, there remains all that is not the earth. And if all that is not the earth disappears, there remains what cannot disappear -- one may wonder why -- because one cannot even think it and in the long run this is really what reality is, so far from the mind and mirror of man, who cannot even conceive of it.7
Another effect of the surrealistic techniques is the feeling of dehumanization that is engendered in surrealistic art. Human forms disappear progressively into the fluidity of distortion and finally
cease altogether to have a place on the canvas. Eventually humanity
is merely reflected in the objects which survived it. In Salvador
Dali's Aerodynamic Chair, and Marc Chagall's Time is a River without
Banks, the human forms are still realistically represented, even
though they are illustrated in an unrelated environment. In Salvador
Dali's The Persistence of Memory, the sleeping embryo has lost all his human characteristics except for his human eye lashes. The next step beyond Dali's extreme distortion is the total reduction of man to the
level of inanimate objects as seen in Picasso's Glass, Pipe, and Matches.
Turning now to poetry, we note that surrealistic poets took particular pride in fulfilling humanity ' s need for "the dream
7Reverdy, "Fausses Notes," Verve (Paris, 1952), p. 18, as quoted in Balakian, p. 108. 10
experience." A combination of abstract and concrete qualities which move beyond realism is demonstrated in the following lines by Andre
Breton:
Les rideaux qui n'ont jamais ete leves Flottent aux fen~tres des maisons Qu'on construira.8
The abstract principle lies in the fact that the curtains cannot flap
in the wind if they have never been hung up, and the houses where the action supposedly takes place have not yet been built. The concrete principle lies in the normal happening of curtains flapping in the windows.
Association of concepts which are usually disassociated can be
found in some of the animated nature imagery of the surrealists, for
instance in "La Brebis galante":
Le vent se leve comme une femme apres une nuit d'amour. Il ajuste son binocle et regarde le monde, avec ses yeux de'enfant. Le monde, ce matin est semblable a une pomme verte qui ne sera jamis m~re, le monde est acide et gaL 9
The new associations demonstrated in the above poem contain an amount of absurdity and surprise which leaves a lasting picture in our minds.
The wind is not usually associated with a woman getting up after a night of love and adjusting her glasses; the world is not ordinarily compared to a green apple. Breton uses associations effectively by fusing the terms "always" and "for the first time" in the following short poem that, like to many other surrealistic poems, has no title:
8Breton, "Textes Surrealistes," Revolution Surrealiste, VI, No. 6, as quoted in Anna Balakian, Literary Origins of Surrealism (New York: New York University Press, 1947), p. 19.
9Benjamin Peret, "La Brebis galante," Terraine Vague, 1959, p. 41. 11
J'ai trouve le secret De t'aimer Toujours par la premiere fois.l0
The fact that the poet falls in love with a woman "again" is dynamically opposed to the static condition of "still loving her."
The placement of vast, fragmentary images from nature into an unrelated environment often underscores man's helplessness:
L'epouvante passant sa main sans os sur les vagues de lamer et dans les voiles des navires, me donnait ces yeux de migraines et de braise qui sont deux jumeayy orphelins perdus dans la lumiere d'un grand bal. 1
The fleshless, giant hand, an unrelated body part, looming over the stormy ocean, dominates the poem and the poet. Joyce Mansour also uses this technique of treating fragmentary images in unrelated environments. In "Dechirures" we find an example for this:
J'ai plante une main d'enfant P~le de maladie grouillante de vermine Dans mon jardin aux arbres fleuris.l2
To have a disconnected body part, a pale little hand, planted in a garden of flowering trees gives the poem a bizarre quality.
Dualities like reality and illusion and actual absence and emotional presence, can be found in Robert Desnos' poem "A la
Mysterieuse. " The poet tells about his dream world where the beloved
1°Breton, Poemes (Paris: Gallimard, 1948), p. 148.
11Roger Vitrac, "Majeur;'asquote:lin J.H. Matthews, Surrealist Poetry in France (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1959), p. 78.
12Joyae Mansour, "Dechirures," as quoted in Matthews, p. 169. 12
is constantly with him and wonders whether reality could ever give him
the same happiness:
J 1 ai tant reve de toi que tu perds ta realite
J 1 ai tant reve de toi que mes bras habitues en etreignant ton ombre a se croiser sur rna poitrine ne se plieraient pas au contour de ton corps, peut-~tre. Et que, devant l 1 apparence reelle de ce qui me hante et me gouverne depuis des jours et des annees, je deviendrais une ombre sans doute.
J 1 ai tant reve de toi, tant marche, parle, couche avec ton fantome qu 1 il ne me reste plus peut-~tre, et pourtant, qu I a' etreA f antomeA parmL• 1 es f antomesA et plus ombre cent fois que l 1 ombre qui se promene et se promenera allegrement sur le cadran solaire de ta vie.l3
Immediate desire breaks down the barrier of distance, and illusion
becomes a reality for the poet through the intensity of his love.
Actual absence and emotional presence become fused and the poet does not try to separate the intermingled elements of reality and dream but accepts them both as parts of life.
In depicting those states of mind termed earlier dimensions of
existence lying between the visible and the invisible, the audible
and the inaudible, the surrealist poet appears to have a superior
acuity of all senses. The eyes try to see the infinite, and the
ear perceives undiscernible sounds in the midst of the noisy turmoil
of life. Here hallucination begins. In Andre Breton 1 s "Vigilance,"
for instance, his eyes watch himself burn to death and then see the
bones of the sun through the hawthorn bush of the rain:
13Robert Des nos, "A la Mys terieuse," as quoted in Mary Ann Caws 1 The Poetry of Dada and Surrealism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1970), pp. 181-182. 13
Je vois les aretes du soleil A travers l'aubepine de la pluie ...... Je ne touche plus que le coeur des choses je tiens le fil.l4
Louis Aragon listens to his own footsteps dying out in his soul and hears his own song tiring of its complaint in Le Roman inacheve:
J'ecoute au fin fond de moi le bruit de mes propres pas s'eteindre J'entends rna propre chanson qui se fatigue de se plaindre.l5
The poet hears voices no one else can hear, the "ultra-audible."
Synesthetic imagery transports the image to a land more sublime as well as more metaphysical than reality.
What may perhaps be called "mental landscapes," the withdrawal into the inner man in view of outer emptiness, may be found in a number of surrealistic poems. In Hans Arp's "Veines noires" the poet makes strange associations between his saddened heart and fog where roses die to show the mood of melancholy:
Dans mon coeur de brouillard meurt la chimere de roses Un astre s'assied au bord de mon lit Il est vieux et lezarde.l6
The colors in the rest of this poem are somber just as indicated in the title and thus are reminiscent of the colors of a Tanguy landscape.
14 Andre Breton, "Le Revolver a Cheveux blancs," as quoted in Caws, p. 83.
15Louis Aragon, Le Roman inacheve (Paris: Gallimard, 1954), p. 182.
16Hans Arp, "Veines noires," On my Way (New York: Wittenborn, Schultz, Inc., 1948), p. 23. 14
In the following poem Breton portrays an inner state of discord where unshed tears, a landscape of salty, white branches, and sea anemones are his only companions. The poet turns away from outer life where, as he states, he is of no importance:
Je n' importe pas \ la vie Mais les rameaux du sel les rameaux blancs Toutes les bulles d'ombre Et les anemones de mer Descendent et respirent ~ l'interieur de rna pens~e. Ils viennent des pleurs que je ne verse pas Des pas que je ne fais pas qui sont deux fois des pas Et dont le sable se souvient a la maree montante.l7
Retreating into his spiritual depths, the poet turns inward and contemplates his separation from the world but refuses to cry about his disillusionment with life.
The mood of terror and cruelty recurs quite frequently in surrealistic poetry. Eluard, the author of moving love poetry, depicts a mood of cruelty in "A la Flamme des Fouets" which is one of the poems in the collection called Capitale de la Douleur:
Metal qui nuit, metal de jour, etoile au nid, Pointe a frayeur, fruit en guehilles, amour rapace, Porte-couteau, souillure vaine, lampe inondee, Souhaits d'amour, fruits de degeut, glaces prostituees ~i~~· ~~~·: b~~j ~~~· ~· ~~~· h~~~~~~·: ...... Avos cris, a vos bonds, a votre ventre qui se cache!l8
This poem is not coherent but consists of strings of violent phrases like "frightening point," "fruit in tatters," ''rapacious love,"
17Breton, "Les Attitudes spectrale," as quoted in Caws, p. 82. 18 Paul Eluard, "A la Flarrune des Fouets," Capitale de la Douleur (Paris: Gallimard, 1926), p. 26, as quoted in Caws, p. 27. 15
"vain defilement," "fruits of disgust," etc. The surrealistic mood of terror is created by the unusual associations of words and the strange combination of sounds. The whole poem exhibits paroxysms of violence that have a marked pathological undertone. Expressions like "amour rapace," "fruits de degout," etc . convey t he atmosphere of sublimated eroticism.
These are some of the major examples of surrealistic features in painting and poetry. It should be remembered that the list of devices in this chapter is in a sense arbitrary, and that some of the techniques enumerated overlap with the others. The list is to serve as a general guideline to chapter three, where these devices will be measured against Lenau's poetry. Thus the syllabus of devices listed and discussed in chapter one has the purpose of being a general agenda rather than a sharply defined set of distinctly separate artistic principles. Seen in this way, the list of techniques may be summed up in the general conclusion that in both painting and poetry the surrealist artist broke away from realistic objectives and reacted subjectively to external impressions. Although he observed the external world closely and even with an eye for detail, he selected from all objects in the universe those which best expressed his own feelings. CHAPTER III
SURREALISTIC TRENDS IN NIKOLAUS LENAU'S POETRY
Lenau's first poems dealt with the subjects of nature, love and
transiency. Even in these works he expressed his innate melancholy and treated the subjects of unhappiness and death. The young Lenau portrayed his world realistically, and his images did not yet have extended symbolic meaning. The first two stanzas of "Das Posthorn" are an example of this:
Still ist schon das ganze Dorf, Alles schlafen gangen, Auch die V~glein im Gezweig, Die so lieblich sangen.
Dort in seiner Einsamkeit Kommt der Mond nun wieder, Und er lMchelt still und bleich Seinen Gruss hernieder.l
These stanzas treat nature in the conventional manner of Lenau's time. The poet gives us a realistic description of nature and does not try to convey a hidden meaning. There is no trace of the complexity of his later works in these lines.
In order to express the intensity of his feelings and to improve his style, Lenau soon broke away from the conventional imagery of his time. He selected new word associations which went beyond the barriers set up by logic. He built his images on these incongruous word groupings and combined them in unique ways. It is difficult to explain why Lenau's work went through this metamorphosis, but we know from his letters to his friends that he was a very conscientious
lNikolaus Lenau, S~mtliche Werke, Briefe, Hermann Engelhard, ed. (Stuttgart: Cotta'sche Buchhandlung, 1959), p. 15. 16 17
poet and that his art was the most important thing in the world to him.
"Die Poesie bin ich selber," wrote Lenau to Sophia von Lt3wenthal,
"mein selbstestes Selbst ist die Poesie."2 This dedicated artist must have been constantly looking for new ways of expression, and he never ceased to create strong, original images that conveyed his passions.
One of these strong, original images is found in "Die Felsenplatte."
Here Lenau accepts on the same level abstract and concrete qualities:
IV
Wie er also unabwendig Starret auf den hellen Stein, Werden plt3tzlich drauf lebendig Seine lieben Phantasei'n. v
Seiner Kindheit Spielgenossen Tanzen lustig drliber hin Mit der Unschuld sUssen Possen, Laden ein zu spielen ihn.3
The concrete qualities in these two stanzas are represented by the poet and by a realistic environment which consists of the mountainous landscape. The abstract qualities are depicted by the phantoms of the poet's past who dance around him enticingly. The use of the present tense extinguishes the line between the past and the present and gives the poem an atmosphere of hallucination.
Concrete and abstract qualities are again combined in "Der trlibe
Wanderer," and as in the above poem, this combination is expressed by
2Lenau, p. 1041.
3Lenau, p. 30. 18
a haphazard placement of phantoms the poet encounters while walking on
the stormy beach:
Im Weiterirren seh'ich die l~ngstverlornen Minnestunden Ein neckend Schattenwolk, vorliberschwirren, Ein neuer Schmerz durchglliht die alten Wunden.
Seltsame Stimmen mein'ich nun zu h~ren: Bald kommt's, ein wirres Plaudern, meinem Lauschen Meerliber her, bald t~nt's in leisen Ch~ren, Dann wieder schweigt's und nur die Wellen rauschen. Ein ernster Freund, mein einziges Geleite, Weist stumm hinunter in die dunkle Flut; Stets enger dr~ngt er sich an meine Seite: Umarme mich, du stiller Todesmut!4
There is again a quality of hallucination here: The poet is not
able to make a definite distinction between the world of his past
and the world of his present. Lenau, in fact, seems to be closer
in spirit to his abstract life than to his real one. This is demon-
strated by a description of the whole occurrence in the present tense but allotting more space to the life that is gone by. Reality and
intense super-reality become intermingled when Lenau expresses the wish to become one with the death phantom in the last lines. The
longing and the day-dreaming are so intense that actual happenings become unreal and give way to hallucinations. 5 The poem conveys the
feeling that Lenau is a restless stranger in the storm and in his
4Ibid., p. 24.
SAndre Breton used the same superimposition of imates in "L'Air de l'Eau: Je r~ve je te vois superposee indefiniment a toi-m~me Tu es assise sur le haut tabouret de corail Devant ton miroir toujours a son premier quartier Deux doigts sur l'aile d'eau de peigne Et en meme temps Tu reviens de voyage tu t'attardes la derniere dans la grotte Rouisselante d'eclairs tu ne me reconnais pas. as quoted in Caws, p. 86. 19
disillusionment with life rediscovers the calm vision of death.
Lenau created his own poetic language and in doing so associated
terminology which is usually disassociated. These strange associations
create vivid images and surprise the reader. The fourteenth stanza of
"Die Felsenplatte" contains bizarre imagery which changes elementary
physical properties:
Donner hallen in den LUften Und im hellen Wetterstrahl Zu den FUssen des Vertieften Zuckt der Stein jetzt bleich und kahl. 6
The expression zuckt is usually applied to animal life and not to
inanimate objects like stone. Bleich is an expression which usually describes the color of the human skin and not that of a rock.7
In the sixth ''Waldlied" Lenau again uses strange associations of
ideas and thus creates new word combinations. These expressions may
be inappropriate in prose style, but they give beauty and intensity
to this particular poem which was Lenau's farewell to the world:
Die ferne, schmMchtige Quelle, Weil alles andere ruht, Lasst h~rbar nun Welle auf Welle HinflUstern ihre Flut.
Dann kommen an die Reih' Die leisen Erinnerungen Und weinen fern vorbei.
Dass alles vorUbersterbe Ist alt und allbekannt; Doch diese Wehmut, die herbe, Hat niemand noch gebannt.8
6Lenau, p. 31.
7Eluard uses the same distortion of physical properties when he writes: "La terre est bleue comme une orange." As quoted in Matthews, p. 109.
8Lenau, pp. 370-378. 20
In using new associations like hinfllistern, Lenau dynamically opposed fllistern, that is a static verb, with hin which indicates motion.
In the third stanza the expression hinfllistern becomes expanded even further into vorbeiweinen of memories. As the whispering of the spring turns into the weeping of memories we get a surrealistic vision.
The compound vorlibersterben means literally to "die past" and reinforces the atmosphere of transiency of this poem. "The concept of past," states Hugo Schmidt, "coupled with verbs of motion is one of the basic patterns in Lenau's imagination and conveys a strong poetic effect."9
The placing of fragmentary images into an unrelated environment is another surrealistic device used by Lenau. The example quoted below is quoted again from "Die Felsenplatte":
Aus dem schwanken Bllitengitter Strahlt ein MMdchenangesicht Wie der Mond aus dem Geflitter Leiser Silberwellen bricht.lO
The fragmentary image here is represented by the face of the beloved that shines through the flowers. It dominates the whole alien environ- ment. This face appearing in a wild mountain setting is brought there by intense yearning and is reminiscent of Salvador Dali's Apparition of Face and Fruit Dish on a Beach. This process of linking images is described by Andre' Breton in the following words: "To assemble these dissimilar objects according to an order which was different from
9schmidt, p. 63.
lOLenau, p. 31. 21
theirs and ... to avoid as much as possible all preconceived plan. 11
In "Die Schilflieder" we again find the use of fragmentary images in unrelated environments. The poet, in his desperate longing for his beloved, has a sudden vision of her long hair flying in the wind.
He is walking in the lonely heath and this apparition only emphasizes his solitude because in reality he is all alone. Hugo Schmidt feels that the "surrealistic" fashion in which the girl appears as a part of the landscape adds to the intensity of the poem:l2
Wie gewitterklar Mein ich dich zu sehn Und dein langes Haar Frei im Sturme wehn.l3
Gewitterklar literally means "stormclear" and is another strange combination since we usually associate bad visibility with a storm.
This stanza actually contains two surrealistic features: the already mentioned association of terms which are usually disassociated and the placement of fragmentary images into an unrelated environment.
In Lenau's more intense poems the mood is indicated by dualities of desire and distance, of reality and illusion, of actual absence and emotional presence. The longing for past happiness and the day-dreaming is so intense in these poems that actual happenings become unreal and give way to hallucinations. The following lines from
"Der trlibe Wanderer" contain one of Lenau's most powerful images and demonstrate the above mentioned dualities. The passage deals with
llBalakian, p. 191.
12schmidt, p. 54.
13 Lenau, p. 19. 22
Lenau's nostalgia for his childhood and his vision of the cross he used to pray to when he was a boy. The cross now is broken and the waves of the sea wash over it:
Das Christuskreuz, vor dem in sch~nen Tagen Ein Kind ich, selig betend, oft gekniet, Es h~ngt hinab vom Strande nun, zerschlagen, Darliber hin die Todeswelle zieht.l4
The image of the cross dominates the whole passage. It constitutes a powerful surrealistic image, for its presence on the shore is only perceived by the poet's inner eye. The cross is only a vision but the poet, with the sharp visual acuity of someone who hallucinates, sees all its details. Lenau notes that the cross is broken, that it is dangling from the beach, and that the "waves of death" are washing over it. These are all symbolic visions: The broken cross indicates the poet's broken faith and spirit. As long as Lenau had the faith of his childhood the cross stood upright in his life, but now it is partially submerged and soon it will be completely destroyed by the waves. The memory of his boyhood and the disunity and estrangement of his adult life are superimposed, and it seems that it is at this instant that the poet realizes that he is doomed. He knows now that the wave of death washed away his belief in God and his lust to live.
A profound nos·talgia lies in the contrast of imagery of the happy, praying child and the alienated man who is a homeless wanderer on the dark, desolate beach.
Lenau often portrays the state of mind lying between the visible and the invisible, the audible and the inaudible, the supernatural and the natural, to a point where it becomes impossible to distinguish
14rbid., p. 24. 23
one from the other. In "Die Schilflieder" the poet hears surrealistically when he phantasizes about his absent beloved's singing:
Und ich mein, ich hBre wehen Leise deiner Stimme Klang Und im Weiher untergehen Deinen lieblichen Gesang.l5
Merlin in the "Waldlieder" has the same heightened auditory
perception as the poet in "Die Schilflieder." He hears sap trickling
inside a tree, future songs in the breasts of young birds, the "noise"
of the moonlight pouring over trees and flowers and even the music
coming from the chalice of moss:
Stimmen, die den anderen schweigen, Jenseits ihrer HBrbarkeiten, HBrt Merlin vorUbergleiten, Alles rauscht im vollen Reigen. Denn die KBnigin der Elfen Oder eine kluge Norn HMlt, dem Sinne nachzuhelfen, Ihm ans Ohr ein Zauberhorn. Rieseln hBrt er, springend schMumen Lebensfluten in den BMumen; VBgel schlummern auf den Xsten Nach des Tages Liebesfesten, Doch ihr Schlaf ist auch beglUckt, Lauschend hBrt Merlin entzUckt Unter ihrem Br,ustgefieder TrMumen ihre kUnft'gen Lieder, Klingend strBmt des Mondes Licht Auf die Eich' und Hagerose, Und dem Kelch der feinsten Moose TBnt das ewige Gedicht.l6
Merlin is also portrayed as a surrealistic figure by Guillaume
Apollinaire. Apollinaire was a precursor of the surrealists and wrote about the supernatural qualities of Merlin in L'Enchanteur pourrissant.l7
15Ibid., p. 20.
16 Ibid., p. 375.
17Guillaume Apollinaire, L'Enchanteur pourrissant (Paris: Henry Kannweiler, 1909). 24
Lenau's novel approach to animate nature often creates bizarre pictures which contain the element of surprise. In "Ein Herbstabend" we find the grotesque imagery of a willow "wringing" its branches, and nature acting the part of a huge, restless sleeper:
Die Weid' am Ufer steht, die weichen Xste ringend.
Natur das Ew'ge schaut inunruhvollen Tr~umen, F~hrt auf und will entfliehn den todverfallnen B~umen.l8
In "Hinnnelstrauer" we also find grotesque imagery. Here Lenau surprises his audience by stating that heaven, in its mourning, dropped the sun from its hand:
Der Hinnnel liess, nachsinnend seiner Trauer Die Sonne l~ssig fallen aus der Hand.l9
The vast proportions of the cosmic imagery underline the intensity of the poem. The anthropomorphic behavior carried out on this scale is bizarre and reminiscent of Dali's Legrand Masturbateur where the huge body of a woman hangs like an animated cloud over the gray earth and its small people. In another poem entitled "Bitte" we find more tellurian imagery:
Weil' auf mir, du dunkles Auge, Ube deine ganze Macht, Ernste, milde, tr~umerische Unergrlindlich sUsse Nacht!
Ninnn in deinen Zauberdunkel Diese Welt von hinnen mir Dass du liber meinem Leben Einsam schwebest fUr und flir.20
18Lenau 233. ' P· 19 Ibid., P· 56. 20 Ibid., P· 16. 25
Schmidt classifies this poem as one of Lenau's surrealistic works in the following lines:
Lenau crystallized the physical, realistic experience of the night's darkness into a haunting image of magical, hypnotic power. By virtue of speaking of one eye only, he gave the image a surrealistic quality. 21
Progressively more alienated from the world and deeply disappointed in the elusive absolute, Lenau looked for comfort and fulfillment in his inner world. He possessed an unusually sharp awareness of his subconscious and was able to assume the role of spectator of his own imagination. By transforming his inner sensations into outer scenes,
Lenau projected the abstract into the concrete. The expression of his state of mind in exterior images emphasized the inscrutability of the divine world and accentuated the ugliness and decay of the universe.
In probing the inner sanctum of his soul, Lenau left us the heritage of his lonely, difficult life in visions and dreams and in verbal equivalents for his sufferings and ecstasies.
Lenau has created several poems that contain "inner landscapes."
Hugo Schmidt states that 11 1Der trtibe Wanderer' illustrates well how
Lenau, starting out with an almost conventional metaphor and extending it, arrives at an image of an inner landscape11 :22
Am Strand des Lebens irr ich, starre dUster Ins Todesmeer, umhlillt von Nebelflor. 23
21schmidt, p. 49.
22 Ibid.
23Lenau, p. 24. 26
This pathologically oriented image of Lenau's inner self appears to transcend the subject matter of the poem and is an expression of the extreme TodesmUdigkeit which the artist experienced. Another "inner landscape" is depicted in the poem "Ohne Wunsch" in which, during a serious conversation with his beloved, the poet suddenly brings in abstract imagery in the following lines:
Ein zu trUber Lebensgang FUhrte mich an steile RYnder Kind, mir wurde urn dich bang, 24 Flieh, es krachen die GelYnder!
Gerhard Neumann writes that some of Lenau's imagery is "ein greller
Misston in der Dichtung" which "spaltet die Harmonie." Neumann discusses further how Lenau's irrationality is one of the causes of the many dissonances in his poetry. 25 The pictures in the lines "an steile
WYnder" and "es krachen die GelYnder" create such a dissonance in an otherwise conventional poem. The "steep walls" and "the splintering railing" are within the poet, and he projects this inner mood into an external imagery to share it with others and thus becomes less lonely.
Lenau's "turning inward" takes on a dramatic significance in the dehumanization that takes place in some of his poetry. Faust denies his human status and claims that he is merely God's dream in the following lines:
Ich bin ein Traum mit Lust und Schuld und Schmerz Und trYume mir das Messer in das Herz. 26
24Ibid., p. 272. 25 Gerhard Neumann, "Lenau und das Epigranun," Lenau Forum, 2, i-ii (1970), pp. 1-10. 26 Lenau, p. 544. 27
A final aspect of Lenau's portrayal of dehumanization is the total absence of man from his poems. Here the anthropomorphic characteristics of his poems are taken over by different aspects of nature. It almost appears that the poet, in his disillusionment with humanity, vivified nature to be able to communicate with it. In
"Sturmesmythe" Lenau attributes this quality of human tenderness to giant dark clouds as they gently bend down over the seemingly dead ocean, their mother:
Und sie neigen sich herab und fragen: "Lebst du noch?" in lauten Donnerklagen, Und sie weinen aus ihr banges Weh. Zitternd leuchten sie mit scheuem Grauen Auf das stille Bett herab und schauen, Ob die alte Mutter tot, die See?27
Anna Balakian states that "dehumanization," and the merging of human characteristics with those of nature, was to become one of the points of departure of the surrealists. She refers to the deserted landscapes of Tanguy and to Max Ernst's L'Oeil du Silence as illustra- tions of dehumanization and states that the surrealists in their rejection of man and of his relationship with other human beings turned to things that will survive them, namely to objects. 28 It is interesting to note that Lenau and the surrealists , in dehumanizing their works, carried the human qualities over to objects, thus showing their deep need for what is human. Although these objects are often found in nature, there is another side to surrealism, namely the tendency of the surrealis t a rtist to turn away from nature,
27 Ibid., p. 229.
28Balakian, p. 176. 28
a point which will be mentioned later.
The mood of terror and cruelty is present in several of Lenau's poems. Schmidt calls Die Albigenser "an endless kaleidescope of horrors."29 The theme of terror or cruelty has often been used in literature but Lenau, again through strange associations of words and phrases, brings a new dimension to the expression of horror. A good example for this is the first stanze of "Simon Monfort," a poem in the above mentioned lyric-epic cycle Die Albigenser:
Die Burgen und die DBrfer brennen, So helle Flamm' ist angefacht: Man kann in mondverlassner Nacht Die Toten auf dem Feld erkennen. Der Krieg, der wilde, rennt und schnaubt Durchs Land, die blutigrote Pflitze, Er hat den Himmel sich aufs Haupt Gesetzt als eine Scharlachmlitze.30
In the poem "Nachtgesang" Lenau envies a tiger for his strength and cruelty and through intensity of feeling actually projects himself into the animal and becomes one with it. This bizarre combination has surrealistic overtones and is reminiscent of the fusing of humans and animals depicted by the surrealistic painters. "Nachtgesang" is another poem of the cycle Die Albigenser and is filled with horror and pathological loathing:
Auf eine aber stUrze dich vor allen, Zerreisse schnell mit deinen scharfen Krallen, Verschling auf immer du in deinen Rachen Ein Frauenbild, das mich will weinen machen!-
29schrnidt, p. 138.
30 Lenau, p. 765. 29
Schon ist in meinem Geist sein Hauch zu spUren Und durch mein Herz sein wildes Blut ergossen!31
Schmidt feels that Lenau was motivated by sublimated eroticism when he 32 wrote Die Albigenser. The same kind of ambiguity between terror and eroticism in surrealism can be found in several of Joyce Mansour's poems.33
The absence of bright colors in the works of the surrealists is another quality they share with Lenau. Alquie states that "surrealist paintings are not symphonies of colors."34 Even in surrealist poetry the colors one encounters are predominantly gray, black, and blue.
According to Mary Ann Caws the surrealists see the source of color and light in words; without words the world is obscur, noir, gris, bleu, p ~ le, etc. Caws quotes Tristan Tzara who stated: "Il fait si noir que seules les paroles sont lumiere."35 Lenau's same predilection for somber colors is expressed in most of his poems. He prefers the colors of autumn which are colors of decay. He uses expressions like "die welken Haine"36 and "trlibe Wolken"37 etc. Lenau further demonstrates
31Ibid., p. 675.
32schmidt, p. 139.
33 rn "Cris" Mansour writes the following : Tu dechirais des lambeaux de peau Avec tes doigts brillants contre le ciel en sang. as quoted in Matthews, p. 165.
34Ferdinand Alquie, The Philosophy of Surrealism (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1955), p. 138.
35caws, p. 106.
36Lenau, p. 45.
37Ibid., p. 48. 30
his fascination for the magic black of the night in descriptions like
"Dunkles Auge," Zauberdunkel"38 and "In so dunklen Einsamkeiten."39
Lenau's heroes are usually pale with sunken eyes as in his description of Ahasver:
Wer aber kommt die Heide hergezogen, Gejagt, so scheint's, von drMngender Gewalt, Das Haupt von greisen Locken wild umflogen, Das tiefgefurchte Antlitz fahl und kalt. Es ragt ins Leben ernst und schroff herein Wie altes, lMngst verwittertes Gestein; Vom Antlitz fliesst herab der Bart so hell, Wie dlisterm Fels entstlirzt der Silberquell. Aus dunkler H~hle glliht des Auges Stern, Als sah's auf dieser Erde nichts mehr gern.40
This chapter on surrealistic trends in Lenau will be concluded with a discussion of "Einsamkeit," the poem which incorporates most of the surrealistic devices and qualities mentioned earlier:
Hast du schon je dich ganz allein gefunden, Lieblos und ohne Gott auf einer Heide, Die Wunden schn~den Missgeschicks verbunden Mit stolzer Stille, zorning dumpfem Leide? War jede frohe Hoffnung dir entschwunden, Wie einem JMger an der Bergesscheide Stirbt das Gebell von den verlornen Hunden, Wie's V~glein zieht, dass es den Winter meide? Warst du auf einer Heide so allein, So weisst du auch, wie's einen dann bezwingt, Dass er umarmend stlirzt auf einen Stein; Dass er, von seiner Einsamkeit erschreckt, Entsetzt empor vom starren Felsen springt Und bang dem Winde nach die Arme streckt.
Der Wind ist fremd, du kannst ihn nicht umfassen, Der Stein ist tot, du wirst beim kalten, derben Umsonst urn eine Trosteskunde werben,
38 Ibid., P· 16. 39 Ibid., P· 39. 40 Ibid., P· 66. 31
So fUhlst du auch bei Rosen dich verlassen; Bald siehst du sie, dein ungewahr, erblassen, BeschMftigt nur mit ihrem eignen Sterben. Geh' weiter: Uberall grUsst dich Verderben In der GeschBpfe langen, dunklen Gassen; Siehst hier und dart sie aus den RUtten schauen, Dann schlagen sie vor dir die Fenster zu, Die RUtten stUrzen und du fUhlst ein Grauen. Lieblos und ohne Gott! der Weg ist schaurig, Der Zugwind in den Gassen kalt; und du?- Die ganze Welt ist zum Verzweifeln traurig.41
This poem was selected for special treatment because it contains a number of surrealistic elements. For instance, there is a combination of concrete and abstract qualities: The solitary human being delivering this "lonely soliloquy" represents reality. The heath, the stone, the wind, the roses, the dark alleys of the
"GeschBpfe," and the falling huts are components of the speaker's
"mental landscape" and symbolize the abstract elements in this poem.
In the first tercet the lonely man "hugs the stone." This is a juxtaposition of two unrelated concepts, for "hugging" reminds one of love, warmth, and belonging, while "rock" has the connotation of coldness, hardness, and lifelessness. The other unusual association is the cruelty and insensitivity of the roses; roses normally symbolize love, vitality, sweetness, and beauty. For Lenau the roses are no comfort, for they disregard his loneliness and are preoccupied only by their own dying. If even roses, the most cheerful creations of nature, are alien and impersonal and linked with the idea of death, nature has nothing to offer the poet. Thus, in the poem "Einsamkeit," we see the surrealistic practice of associating concepts which are normally disassociated as well as that of making "unusual" associations.
41 Ibid., pp. 252-253. 32
Although in "Einsamkeit" there are no fragmentary images as such, but rather images of rows of " creatures" and of the strange, collapsing huts placed into an unrelated environment, a clear surrealistic quality emerges when we ask whose huts they are, and why they collapsed.
At this point the surrealistic imagery becomes evident. One realizes that we are dealing with fantasies which are evoked by a desperate human being's search for God and companionship.
Another element of surrealism is found in the dichotomy between immediate desire and the object of the desire dwindling in the distance, the polarity of reality and illusion, and the dualism of actual absence and emotional presence. The lonely person in the poem desperately longs for companionship, but no other human being who might save him is present. In his intense longing for communication our wanderer speaks to someone in the familiar person of "Thou" although no one hears him. He may hallucinate and believe that he is with a friend who will answer his anxious questioning.
"Einsamkeit" is a poem which, in its totality, expresses the poet's "mental landscape," that inner kingdom where his deepest feelings reside. The line "Es ist die Verzweiflung dessen, der Gott un d LLe. b ever 1.Lert, "42 reaches deep into the heart of the poet's lament. Roy Cowen feels that the poet is "incarcerated" in his world of senses and deprived of all metaphysi cal succor, thus depending
42wolfdietrich Rasch, "Nikolaus Lenau. 'Einsamkeit, '" Die deutsche Lyrik, Benno v . Wiese, ed. (DUsseldorf: August Bagel Verlag, 1964), pp. 150-159. 33
only on the physica1. 43 Despair over this situation drives Lenau to lay bare that inner landscape which is the domain of his unique self.
The poet's despair is underlined by the spreading of arms and the reaching out in an imploring fashion.
Johannes Hoffmeister discusses the protagonists in Lenau's works and states the following:
Der Mensch verliert seine menschliche Form, die ordnende Kraft und heitere Klarheit des Geistes. Es waltet die blosse, naturhafte, trMumende, nMchtige Seele.rr44
The human in "Einsamkeit" becomes progressively dehumanized. In the poem Lenau descends gradually on the evolutionary scale, giving us images of a hunter, dogs, a bird, and finally a rock. This is a subtle indication of the dehumanization of the lonely wanderer.
Rasch states that the "Geschtlpfe" are a "reduction of man" and adds that communication with them is the last attempt of the human in the heath to find salvation from dehumanization. 45 Finally the despair of resignation takes the place of the hopeful defiance of loneliness and the wanderer admits that "die ganze Welt ist zum Verzweifeln traurig." The "creatures" who form the dark alleys remain faceless.
They show the aspect of dehumanization by their detachment from human emotions as evidenced in the rejection of human contact and the
43Roy Cowen, "The Significance of Gottfried Keller's Poem 'An Lenau, "' Symposium, No. 4, pp. 352-357.
44Johannes Hoffmeister, "Nikolaus Lenau," Nachgoethe'sche Lyrik (Bonn: H. Bouvier und Co. Verlag, 1948), p. 25.
45As quoted in Wiese, p. 156. 34
acquisition of antisocial ways in "shutting out" the poet. The
"wasteland" that Lenau reaches is devoid of the last echo of the human voice; it has no emotion and no desire.
The mood of loneliness and rejection in "Einsamkeit" is strengthened by sudden changes in sounds and pictures like the barking of the hounds breaking the silence for a second and the rapid succession of the images of the alleys lined with somber creatures and of the falling huts. This is the technique of "flashing images" discussed in surrealistic art.
The terror in the poet's heart grows as he becomes slowly aware of his complete isolation. It is an atmosphere of being doomed which dominates the whole poem. The immobile, empty countryside is a land without a future and is reminiscent of a moonscape with its unfeeling and cruel nature.
Despair and horror are intensified in the second stanza: The poet startles in panic when he becomes fully aware of his situation, degraded by his need to put his arms around a rock he jumps up and fearfully stretches out his arms after the wind. But each one of his movements betrays the absurdity of trying to get out of his desolate vacuum and he fearfully realizes that he is confronting nothingness.
"Einsamkeit" has so many surrealistic elements that it could even be considered "surrealistic" if it had not been written at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The poet, who delivers the lonely monologue, reminds one of the surrealist Alberto Giacometti's paintings. They, too, represent the "I" that appears to be standing far away and is 35
hermetically sealed off from the rest of the world. In these paintings the "I" is a stranger among men and beasts. The poet experiences the greatest tragedy in the world, that of complete isolation. But in spite of adversity, he does not rebel but has the strength to reflect on his fate.
Schmidt makes the following statement about Lenau's treatment of solitude in "Einsamkeit.":
The formulation that he (Lenau) gave to the experience of solitude explores the very core of this sensation. It is important that Lenau used strikingly modern images, not romantic ones, in this instance. The phantastic, nightmarish character of the first tercet is most unusual for the literature of Lenau's time. The emotions underlying the poem must have been so genuine and intense that it made Lenau seek out new stylistic devices and new images.46
The last three lines of "Einsamkeit" st.nn up the whole poem. It is quite symbolic that the poem ends with a question, indicating the poet's searching for a meaning of life. Unfortunately, the question stays suspended in the void and remains unanswered. Despair could not be overcome in spite of the strength of the protagonist. The poem ends on the same note it started: "Ohne Liebe und ohne Gott."
46schmidt, p. 38. CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSION
It is apparent that Lenau was not actually a surrealist but that he created unusual verbal equivalents to describe his intense states of mind, many of which are quite similar to the effects we find in surrealistic painting and poetry of the twentieth century.
It is important to note the many traits Lenau did not share with
the surrealists. For instance, a major feature in surrealistic
literature is humor, an element almost completely absent in Lenau's poetry. The surrealists never wrote a tragedy, and they smilingly acknowledged the essential ambiguity of experience. Theirs was basically an optimistic outlook on life. In most of their works
they describe the "marvelous" as happy experiences one has during a routine day. It could be the sight of a red balloon or the slicing of a loaf of warm bread. Surrealistic man felt the threat of loss of love and death, but often coped with it by turning toward the positive aspects of life and by living every minute fully and gratefully.
They were petit bougeois filled with a vital energy that the aristo cratic Lenau never had.
Lenau usually started his poems just as pessimistically as he finished them. Surrealistic poems, on the other hand, often start with the exclamation Bonjour! that says "hello" to the whole world and thus demonstrate good feelings about life and the universe.
Surrealism is often referred to as a "cult of childhood" for it is during that time that we unquestioningly say Bonjour! to everything.
36 37
Another important difference I found between Lenau and the surrealists is their treatment of form. As stated in my thesis, Lenau was an extremely precise and conservative poet when it came to grammar and meter. Except for a few poems like "Waldlieder" he used the four lined rhymed stanza and never sacrificed proper grammar for a new idea.
The only revolutionary technique he used concerning form was the association of concepts which were normally disassociated.
The surrealists, on the other hand, completely disregarded all previous rules of verse-making. Their most drastic technique was automatic writing where strings of disjointed words made up a whole poem with a complete absence of unity. Automatic writing, however, did not survive long and the surrealists turned to more comprehensible ways of communication although they still used a free style. Therefore it is surprising to find that Lenau and the surrealists, who composed so differently, still often arrived at the creation of the same imagery and mood.
Another difference between Lenau and the surrealist poets is their concept of the infinite. Lenau in his lethargic Weltanschauung saw no meaning in life, and for him everything ended after death.
For the surrealists life was full of purpose, and man for them lives on in the works he creates and in the objects that will survive him.
Nature played very different roles in Lenau's poetry and in that of the surrealists. Lenau first portrayed nature as the most meaningful human experience, but eventually he became alienated by what he felt was nature's insensitivity to man.l The surrealists,
1Hugo Schmidt, p. 106. 38
on the other hand, avoided a unified portrayal of nature which could no longer function in unique ways to express their modern experience.
Beyond the difference stated above remains the surprising creation of a surrealistic mood by artists living in different centuries and completely isolated from each other. The huge celestial imagery, the juxtaposition of past and present, and the flashing pictures of beautiful faces of girls are fantasies that recurred in two eras and each of them brought surprise and new life to art. BIBLIOGRAPHY
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39 40
Hoffmeister, Johannes (ed.). Nachgoeth~sche Lyrik. Bonn: Bouvier and Col, 1948.
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Arndt, Karl J. "Lenau's Lost Poem: 'An die Ultraliberalen,'" German Review, V, No. 3 (1944), pp. 180-185.
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Cowen, Roy Chadwell. "The Significance of Gottfried Keller's Poem 'An Lenau, "' Symposium, VXIX, No. 4, pp. 352-357.
Madl, Antal. "Lenau und die Romantik," Lenau Forum, II (1970), pp. 107-109.
Neumann, Gerhard. "Lenau und das Epigramm," Lenau Forum, II (1970), pp. 1-18.
Peret, Benjamin. "La Brebis galante," Terraine Vague (Paris, 1959), 41-73. 41
Rasch, Wolfdietrich. "Lenau. Einsamkeit," Die deutsche Lyrik, Benno v. Wiese, ed. Dusseldorf, August Bagel Verlag, 1964, pp. 150-159.
Schmidt, George. "What has the Art of Psychotics to Do with Art as Such," Insania Pingens (Basel: Published by Cibal, 1961), PP• 19-30.
Schmidt, Hugo. "Religious Issues and Images in Lenau's Work," Germanic Review, XXXIX (January 1964), pp. 163-182.
Siegel, Carl. "Lenau' s Faust und sein Verhliltnis zur Philosophie," Kantstudien, XXI, pp. 66-92.
Stannn, Israel. "Lenau's Faust," The German Review, XXVI, No. 51, pp. 5-12.
Unpublished Dissertations
Deschner, Karlheinz. "Lenaus metaphysische Verzweiflung und ihr lyrischer Ausdruck," unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, Julius Maximilian Universitlit zu Wlirzburg, 1951.
Herz, Julius. "Lenau und Ungarn," unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Vienna, 1950.
Schmahl, Eugen. "Die Beziehungen zwischen Form und Inhalt in der Lyrik," unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Giessen, 1921. List of the Paintings
Chagall, Marc. Time is a River without Banks. Illustrated in Anna Balakian's Surrealism: The Road to the Absolute. New York: E.P. Dutton and Co., Inc., 1970, p. 195.
Dali, Salvador. Aerodynamic Chair. Ibid., p. 194.
Apparition of Face and Fruit Dish on a Beach. Ibid., p. 189.
Legrand Masturbateur. Ibid., p. 184.
The Persistence of Memory. Ibid., p. 179.
Ernst, Max. Elephant de Celebes. Ibid., p. 180.
L'Oeil de Silence. Ibid., p. 198.
Magritte, Rene. La Reconnaissance infinie. Illustrated in William Gaunt's The Surrealists. New York: Putnam and Co., 1972, p. 104.
Le Modele rouge. Balakian, p. 200.
Mir6, Joan. Head of a Woman. Ibid., p. 181.
Picasso, Pablo. Glass, Pipe, and Matches. Ibid., p. 176.
Tanguy, Yves. Genese. Illustrated in James Thrall Soby's Yves Tanguy. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1955, p. 14.
Il faisait ce qu'il voulait. Ibid., p. 23.
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