German Poetry to 1800 (Critical Survey of Poetry)
Introduction
Poetry as a pleasant distraction from life, as a conventional ornament for social occasions, as
linguistic play or experiment, even as the sincere expression of heartfelt emotions, belongs to
comparatively recent times. In its beginnings, humankind used the magical power of patterned,
rhythmic speech to impose meaning and order on the world. Through poetry, humankind hoped
to gain mastery of both the natural and the social environment. Certainly this was true of the
Germanic tribes: The first writer to mention Germanic poetry, the Roman historian [The entire page is 11238 words long]
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