Poems

Kempner, Friederike, 1836-1904Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.0

Word count: 177K words
Chapters: 18

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Gedichte by Friederike KempnerAuthor: Kempner, Friederike, 1836-1904,Language: German, Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures, Release Date: May 16, 2014

Editor's review

Gedichte is a poetry collection by the German poet Friederike Kempner (1836–1904), released free of charge in the original German by Project Gutenberg. Kempner's poetry is often regarded as a singular presence in the German-speaking world: direct in emotion, drawn from everyday subjects, and not overly polished in form, yet it has a devoted readership precisely because of its blend of sincerity and eccentricity. This collection serves as a sample for understanding nineteenth-century German women's writing and popular poetry, and as a case for observing the phenomenon of the "alternative classic" in literary reception history. Readers need not judge it by strict traditional standards of poetic craft; instead they can focus on its linguistic rhythm, choice of subjects, and modes of emotional expression. For German learners, the short lines and relatively plain vocabulary make it an accessible introduction to the feel of nineteenth-century German poetry.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in nineteenth-century German poetry and women's writing
Scholars and students studying literary reception history and popular poetry
Language learners with basic German who wish to try reading poetry
Literature lovers who enjoy short poems for casual reading in spare moments

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting strict classical metre and rhetorical refinement
Those with no German reading ability and no bilingual edition
Readers who prefer long narrative or modernist poetry

Reading tips

Read two or three poems a day: first read aloud for rhythm, then look up words to understand the content.
Before reading, learn the basics of nineteenth-century German versification to better judge formal features.
Read alongside other German poets to observe stylistic differences and the literary context of the period.
Note recurring themes and emotional motifs to form an overall picture of the collection.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What are the characteristics of Kempner's poetry?

Her poems express emotion directly, draw mainly on everyday life and personal feeling, and do not deliberately pursue strict metre. In German literary reception she is often seen as a stylistically distinctive poet in whom sincerity and eccentricity coexist, with a particular readership.

Can I read this book without knowing German?

This is a poetry collection in the original German, and without German it is difficult to understand the content directly. Readers are advised to acquire basic German first, or to use a reliable German-Chinese parallel resource; otherwise the reading experience will be limited.

Is this collection suitable for academic research?

It can serve as research material on nineteenth-century German women's writing, popular poetry, and literary reception history, but it should not be used alone as a model for analysing classical poetic art. Researchers should use it alongside literary-historical and reception-history sources.

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About the author

Kempner, Friederike, 1836-1904 Author · German · 1836–1904

Friederike Kempner (1836–1904) was a nineteenth-century German poet. Public information about her life is limited; she is generally known to have been born in 1836 and to have died in 1904, and to have made her name as a poet. Her representative work, Gedichte (Poems), presents the essential character of her verse, which often draws on personal feeling and everyday experience, with concise language and an expression of emotion that is direct yet restrained. Her poems were recognizable to readers of her time, and their distinctive style later made them a frequent target of imitation and parody, which testifies to the mark her work left on the reception of German poetry. One work by her is currently held in the collection.