BOO KS
139
preference for an artificial universe that is entirely a construction of the
human spirit:
Mein garten bedarf nicht luft and nicht warme,
Der garten den ich mir selber erbaut
Und seiner vogel leblose schwarme
H aben noch nie einen fruhling geschaut: x.
I n George's book
Das T eppich des L ebens
(T he Tapestry of Life),
published in 1908, a significant change occurs in his poetry. Up to this
time George had been a writer who, like his fe llow-Symbolists, had ex–
hibited a marked distaste for the modern world; and the emotional
atmosphere of his work reflected moods of frustration, resignation and
despairing withdrawal. Now, however, George's poetry becomes imbued
with the sense of a positive mission, symbolized by the figure of an angel
who comes to announce to the poet the ideal of
"das schone Leben."
This ideal remains at the center of George's work, and it may be roughly
described as a revivification of Greek harmony:
" H ellas ewig Ullsre
*
"My garden needs no light and no warmth/The garden that for myself I
have built/And th e swarming flocks of its lifeless birds/Never yet h ave looked
out on a springtime."
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