Analysis Of Mädchenlied

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“Mädchenlied”, like “Tot”, is part of Haringer’s book Abschied.
In German poetry, “Mädchenlied” (girl’s or maiden’s song) can, for example, refer to a category of Minnesang with humorous elements, in which the speaker does not address a noble lady. Walther von der Vogelweide’s poetry includes works of this genre. In the 19th and early 20th century, poets like Emanuel von Geibel, Paul Heyse, Ludwig Pfau, Hugo von Hofmannsthal and Otto Julius Bierbaum wrote another kind of “Mädchenlieder”, which describe life from the perspective of a young girl who experiences first love, longing for love, unfaithfulness or loss. Several of these poems have been set to music, and in some cases, composers called their songs “Mädchenlied” even though the poem originally had a different title. Brahms and Reger wrote three maiden’s songs each. Besides Op. 48 No. 3, Schönberg composed three “Mädchenlieder”: two early songs from 1896 and 1897 with texts by Emanuel von Geibel and Paul Heyse and Op. 6 No. 3 with a text by Paul Remer.
Haringer’s poem is written from the perspective of a girl who does not seem to fit in and feels lost. She is unhappy and unable to comprehend, articulate and overcome her …show more content…

48, “Mädchenlied” is written in one block of text that can be divided into several stanzas. The rhyme scheme implies a division into four quatrains. Except for the fourteenth verse, the poem is composed of trimeters, which create metric unity despite the irregular alternation of disyllabic and trisyllabic feet that conveys the impression of natural speech. At several places at the beginning and the end of the poem, it is difficult to determine the metre precisely, since different ways of distributing stressed and unstressed syllables seem plausible due to the large amount of monosyllabic words and the shifting metric patterns of the poem. This irregularity and uncertainty mirror the girl’s youth, helplessness and inability to grasp and express her

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