Die Lyrik Gottfried Kellers. Exemplarische Interpretationen (review)

Inspired by Georg Herwegh (Gedichte eines Lebendigen [1841]) and other German Vormärz poets, Keller (1819-90) began writing his own poetry in 1843. As Keller recalled much later (1876-77): "Es war gerade die Zeit der ersten Sonderbundskämpfe in der Schweiz; das Pathos der Parteileidenschaft war eine Hauptader meiner Dichterei, und das Herz klopfte mir wirklich, wenn ich die zornigenVerse skandierte" (quoted by Sautermeister 1). Keller's "Pathos der Parteileidenschaft," as expressed in his first published poem "Sie kommen, die Jesuiten!" (1844), was for the liberal centralists against the conservative federalists of the 'Separate Alliance' of seven Catholic-dominated cantons, who were finally defeated in the Sonderbundskrieg in November 1847.

Keller produced an astonishing number of poems in the next few years. In 1846, he collected his Gedichte in a volume of 346 pages; in 1851 he added another 207 pages of poetry in his Neuere Gedichte, an expanded edition (241 pages) of which appeared in 1854. (Then, however, Keller, sensing that storytelling was his real literary talent, abandoned poetry and (re)turned to prose with Der grüne Heinrich [1854/55; 1879/80], Die Leute von Seldwyla [1856/74], Sieben Legenden [1872], Zürcher Novellen [1878/79], Das Sinngedicht [1882]). In 1878-79, Keller experienced a brief lyrical "Nachsommer" (Bernd Breitenbruch, Gottfried Keller in Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten [1968] 152), writing a number of new poems while revising or polishing many of his early poems, and published his Gesammelte Gedichte (1883) in a volume of 502 pages.

Keller himself was critical of his early poetry, recalling again in 1876-77: "Ein Band Gedichte, zu früh gesammelt, erschien im Jahr 1846; er enthielt nichts als etwas Naturstimmung, etwas Freiheits-und etwas Liebeslyrik, entsprechend dem beschränkten Bildungsfelde, auf dem er gewachsen" (Sautermeister 2). The contemporary reception of Keller's poetry was divided. Theodor Fontane, for example, did not include any poem by Keller in his influential Deutsches Dichteralbum (1852, 4^th edition 1858), and as late as 1894 was unwilling to find any distinction in Keller's poetry (Bernd 79). By contrast, Theodor Storm counted five of Keller's poems among his favorites: "Winternacht," "Waldlieder," "Abendlied," "Stilles Abenteuer," and "Jung gewohnt, alt getan" (letter of 22 December 1883 to Keller).

Storm scholar Clifford Bernd singles out "Waldlieder" (1846), "Winternacht" (1854), and "Abendlied" (1878 [1883]) for interpretation, but argues that only in his late poetry was Keller able to rid himself of the influence of Romantic poetry and submit "his considerable lyrical talent totally to the demands of Poetic Realism" (German Poetic Realism [1981] 86). But Breitenbruch considers the "Abendlied" to be "ein Kuriosum insofern, als Keller hier Vollkommenes gelang zu einer Zeit, in der er schon lange kein Lyriker mehr war und die auf diesem Gebiet nichts auch nur von Ferne Vergleichbares brachte" (152). Adolf Muschg goes even further when he declares: "Keller ist nicht Mörike; es gibt bei ihm so gut wie keine makellosen Gedichte" ("Der leere Spiegel. Bemerkungen zu Kellers Lyrik" [1990], quoted by Sautermeister 7).

Although Sautermeister concedes that Keller's early poetry contains "Überflüssiges und Traditionsverhaftetes" (4), he argues that his poetry in general, particularly its "Vielfalt," "Variationskraft," and "Eigenständigkeit," has been "unterschätzt," while its "Traditionalität" has been "überschätzt" (5). Acknowledging that Keller's poetry has always been considered to be inferior to his fiction (7), Sautermeister argues that the poetry has often been analyzed more for thematic connections of individual poems to the fiction (primarily, Der grüne Heinrich) than in their own right (5, 335) or in the context of cycles or groups in which Keller purposely organized so many of his poems (6). Using a formal and thematic, rather than the more traditional biographical or chronological, approach (5), Sautermeister aims to demonstrate that Keller was not an epigonal (335), but rather an experimental poet (9), a Poetic Realist whose poetry plays with literary styles and traditions and anticipates features of modern lyric poetry (319-321). In contrast to Muschg, Sautermeister considers a greater...