The Poetry: 'I want to bury myself in the night''

By Alfred Lichtenstein

Alfred Lichtenstein was born on the 23rd August 1889, in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, the son of a Jewish manufacturer. He grew up in Berlin before studying law at Erlangen in Bavaria.

A writer in the Expressionist style his poems and short stories are short but beautifully honed works. His tragically short life allowed only a small part of his talents to rest with us. Undoubtedly a full life would have given the world a very gifted literary force.

Alfred Lichenstein volunteered for duty in the German Army for World War I. He died on the front at the Somme in the early months of the war on 25th September 1914. He was 25.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Portable Poetry
• Release date: Jun 15, 2024
• ISBN: 9781835475379

Book preview

The Poetry of Alfred Lichtenstein

Alfred Lichtenstein was born on the 23rd August 1889, in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, the son of a Jewish manufacturer.  He grew up in Berlin before studying law at Erlangen in Bavaria. 

A writer in the Expressionist style his poems and short stories are short but beautifully honed works.  His tragically short life allowed only a small part of his talents to rest with us.  Undoubtedly a full life would have given the world a very gifted literary force.

Alfred Lichenstein volunteered for duty in the German Army for World War I.  He died on the front at the Somme in the early months of the war on 25th September 1914.  He was 25.

Index of Contents

A Critique by Lichtenstein Himself

The Athlete

Rubbers

The Patent-leather Shoe

Smoke on the Field

Dreaming

The Sad Man

Capriccio

The Turk

Hugo von Hofmannsthal's Barber

Spring

A Barkeeper's Coarse Complaint

A Trouble-making Girl

The Drunkard

A Lieutenant General Sings

Falling in the River

A Poor Man Sings

Twilight

The Night

The Cabaret in the Suburbs

The Trip to the Mental Hospital

Into the Evening

Interior

Morning

Landscape

The Concert

Winter

The Operation

Cloudy Evening

Sunday Afternoon

The Excursion

Summer Evening

The Trip to the Mental Hospital (II)

Peace

Towards Morning

Bad Weather

The Sick

Cloud

The City

The World

Prophecy

Winter Evening

Girls

After the Ball

Landscape

Moonscape

Landscape in the Early Morning

Return of the Village Boy

Summer Freshness

Afternoon, Fields and Factory

Rainy Night

Period

Reflecting Upon a Human Lung in Alcohol

In the Tuberculosis Sanitarium

Signs

The End

My End

Song of Kuno Kohn's Longing

Invasion

Pathos

Love Song

The Suicide

Touched

Prayer to People

Wanderer in the Evening

Evening

Spring

Kuno Kohn's Five Songs to Mary

First Song:

Next Song:

Song of Praise

Sad Song

Last Song

Kuno's Nocturne

Going for a Walk

Ash Wednesday

The Son

To Frida

Lonely Watchman Soldiers' Songs

Songs to Berlin

Monday in the Courtyard of the Barracks

Now of course

Elegant Morning

Farewell

Romantic Journey

Warrior's Longing

Prayer before Battle

The Grenade

After Combat

The Battle at Saarburg

A Critique by Lichtenstein Himself

I

Because I believe that many do not understand the verse of

Lichtenstein, do not correctly understand, do not clearly understand—

II

The first eighty poems are lyric. In the usual sense. They are not much different from poetry that praises gardens. The content is the distress of love, death, universal longing. The impulse to formulate them in the cynical vein (like cabaret songs) may, for example, might have arisen from the wish to feel superior. Most of the eighty poems are insignificant. They were not presented to the public. All except one (one of the last) That is:

  I want to bury myself in the night,

  Naked and shy.

  And to wrap darknesses