Tecniche di risemantizzazione. Il verso lungo nella lirica tedesca del 'fine secolo'

This paper aims to analyze certain features in the use of long verse by a few German language poets in the early twentieth century. Particular attention will be devoted to two collections: Der Weltfreund by Franz Werfel (1911) and Der Aufbruch by Ernst Stadler (1913). Our conclusion is that this technique was given preference in order to support a critical representation of modernization processes affecting all European societies, but especially Wilhelmine Germany between the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. With regard to the acceleration and contraction imposed by mechanized production, long verse assumes an extended and quantitatively irregular size. For the authors being considered here, this is above all due to the influence of Whitman via a device destined to evoke a sort of primitive and universal human identity, liberated to spread out beyond codified boundaries.