The Verse of Alfred Lichtenstein

(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 around my limbs
And warm luster.