Junge Pferde! Junge Pferde!

Boldt, Paul, 1885-1921Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.7

Word count: 28K words
Chapters: 3

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.Junge Pferde! Junge Pferde! by Paul BoldtAuthor: Boldt, Paul, 1885-1921,Language: German, Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures, Release Date: Jul 22, 2012

Editor's review

Paul Bold was a short-lived yet distinctly styled poet in the circle of early twentieth-century German Expressionist poetry, and this collection, Young Horses! Young Horses!, gathers his poems, whose language is terse and whose images leap, carrying a sense of tense confrontation between city and nature. The title itself is like a shout, and the lines often capture momentary emotions in fragmentary rhythms, suited to sensing the restless, ardent temperament of Expressionist poetry. For Chinese readers it is both a firsthand sample of modern German poetry and a small window onto the avant-garde literary atmosphere of Europe in the 1910s. When reading, there is no need to pursue line-by-line explanation; first feel the sound and rhythm, then use annotations to understand the images. It is suitable as supplementary material for poetry selections or German literature courses.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Literary readers interested in German Expressionist poetry
German majors using it for practice in reading originals
Poetry lovers who enjoy short poems and intense imagery
Readers studying early twentieth-century avant-garde literature

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer narrative works with complete plots
Those with no German who are unwilling to use reference tools
Readers expecting traditional lyric poetry and meter

Reading tips

First read through once to feel the rhythm and tone, then read poem by poem closely; do not insist on understanding everything at once.
Read alongside Expressionist painting or contemporary poetry anthologies to build a sense of the era's atmosphere.
Read the German aloud to experience the sound effects produced by short lines and repetition.
Keep a notebook to record recurring images, and review their overall thread after finishing.

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

Can I read this poetry collection without knowing German?

You can read it with a bilingual edition or a translated version, though some of the sound and rhythm will be lost. It is advisable to first read a Chinese translation to get the gist, then compare it with the original to feel the sentence patterns and repetition. If possible, accompanying audio recordings will work even better.

What is the theme of this poetry collection?

The information does not provide the content of specific poems; one can only judge from the author and title that it belongs to the category of Expressionist poetry, with common themes including urban experience, natural imagery, and intense emotion. Readers should base their understanding on the actual text and need not presuppose a unified theme.

Is it suitable as German learning material?

It can serve as supplementary material, but is not recommended as a main textbook. The lines are short and the images leap, and the grammar is not necessarily regular, so beginners may easily become frustrated. Readers with some foundation in German and an interest in poetry will find it fairly suitable for practicing language feel and vocabulary.

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About the author

Boldt, Paul, 1885-1921 Author · German · 1885–1921

Paul Boldt (1885–1921) was a German poet, born in the Danzig region and died in Freiburg. His short life coincided with the rise of German Expressionist literature, and his work consists mainly of poetry; he is often counted among the early Expressionist poets. He focused on war and urban life, capturing both the bustle of the modern city—its streets and crowds—and the unrest and emotional intensity of the wartime years. His poems are concise in language, strong in imagery, and abrupt in rhythm, reflecting the Expressionist preference for inner feeling and vivid visual images. His representative work, Junge Pferde! Junge Pferde! (Young Horses! Young Horses!), is known for this style. Boldt died young at the age of thirty-six, published little during his lifetime, and long received little attention; only in the later twentieth century was his poetry rediscovered and reassessed. Because public sources are limited, many details of his life can no longer be verified, yet his place in German Expressionist poetry is still affirmed through his work.