The poetry of Christoph Fürer von Haimendorf
Date Issued
June 1, 1980
Author(s)
Morgan, Ronald K.
Advisor(s)
Robert L. Hiller
Additional Advisor(s)
John C. Osborne
Henry Kratz
Mary P. Richards
Abstract
This study deals with the poetry of Christoph Fürer von Haimendorf (1663-1732), Nuremberg poet and fifth president of the Pegnitz Blumen-Orden. It lists and gives a general description of his extant works and cites bibliographical references to him and his works. Secondary literature which is concerned with his works is discussed, and a short account of his life is given. The main purpose of the study is to characterize and analyze Fürer's three volumes of poetry: Vermischter Gedichte-Kranz (1682), Christliche Vesta und irrdische Flora (1702), and Pomona (1726). It gives a general account of the subject matter of each volume and describes and criticizes the poet's manner of developing themes. The study shows that the poetry in Vermischter Gedichte-Kranz is well within the Baroque tradition. Common Baroque themes are presented in a manneristic style that gives priority to form over content. At the same time, however, it is pointed out that Fürer is attempting to moderate the poetry associated with the Pegnitz society, because many characteristics which had been a mark of Nuremberg poetry are lacking. Although Christliche Vesta und irrdische Flora has Baroque characteristics, the poet's movement away from his earlier highly ornate style is evident. Much of the love poetry, the religious poetry, and the epigrams reveal a transition toward a more straightforward, relatively unembellished style. The popular, mundane expressions in the satires also illustrate this change. The secular works which make up the last section of the volume are essentially rhymed prose marked by a practical and sober didacticism. Fürer's poetry in Pomona is characterized by a predominately prosaic style and a stronger rationalistic outlook. Divine order is the common theme of this later poetry. The religious poetry betrays definite influence of the German Englightenment and reveals certain similarities between Fürer and such poets as Brockes and Gellert. The encomia stress the ideas of divine and secular order which justifies and defines the role of the Holy Roman Empire in the world. The elegies are marked by a personal element which emerges when Fürer attempts to apply rationalistic principles and the idea of order to death. There is a personal struggle and a bitterness toward the world, whose events are not always rational and orderly. This struggle shows Fürer's later poetry to be distant from the highly intellectualized poetry of his Baroque period. The study concludes with an examination of Fürer's language and style. It reveals that there is little variety of form and that Fürer is following Opitz's requirement for exclusive use of iambs and trochees. His continued use of many rhetorical devices and of alliteration and internal rhyme are efforts to improve the German language and to help perpetuate it as a vehicle for literary expression. Fürer's entire work shows him to be part of the movement toward establishing a national literature in the vernacular.
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
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