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The Poetry of Friedrich Nietzsche

Nietzsche has long been recognized and acclaimed as a thinker who transcends disciplinary categories. Although much has been written of him as a forerunner of existentialism, Freudian psychology, and modern linguistics, no modern study had been devoted to one of his lifelong preoccupations: his poetry. This book — the first to bring together the poems in English — restores them to their proper central position in the Nietzsche canon. Begun in early youth and composed and revised until the onset of his insanity in 1899, the poems reflect his own imperative that "the philosopher should recognize that which is necessary and the artist should create it."

In The Poetry of Friedrich Nietzsche Grundlehner examines 30 major poems and in so doing draws allusions and references to 220 juvenilia, songs, epigrams, dithyrambs, and verse fragments found throughout Nietzsche's writing. Arranged chronologically according to the various stages of Nietzsche's life and philosophical development, these not only bear testimony to the many changes in his environment and thinking, but from a rich background to his prose writings.

Excerpt:

"Toward New Seas" (1882)

Toward that place — is my will. And I trust

Henceforth myself and my grip.

Open lies the sea, my

Genose ship heads into the blue.

Everything is shining new and newer for me.

Noon sleeps upon space and time — :

Only your eye — monstrously,

Stare at me, Infinity!

  • Format
  • hardcover
  • Pages
  • 386
  • Language
  • english
  • ISBN
  • 9780195036770
  • Genres
  • poetry
  • Release date
  • 1987