Schönberg chose a poem from Waller im Schnee for his first setting of George’s poetry. He might have been inspired by Ansorge’s cycle “Waller im Schnee”, Op. 14, No. 5, excerpts of which were performed together with parts of Schönberg’s Opp. 2 and 3 in a concert at the Ansorge-Verein on 11 February 1904. The poem is the fourth in George’s cycle, where it follows a set of three descriptions of wanderings, including “Die steine die in meiner strasse staken” and “Mir ist als ob ein blick im dunkel glimme”. Like the other poems of Waller im Schnee, it is influenced by George’s relationship with Ida Coblenz. It emphasises the similarity of the speaker’s and his companion’s suffering of being different and describes her reluctance to acknowledge
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They describe how his companion refuses the speaker’s closeness and consolation. The verses hint once again at their austere attitudes, as the personification of the speaker’s consolation and the other’s wistfulness makes it appear as if they are separated from their emotions. At first glance, his wish to comfort her seems strange in the context of his earlier mentioned gratitude (v. 1). First here, it is possible to understand the two previous verses. The speaker has found someone as lonely and unable to relate to others as himself and their shared sorrow is the reason for both his gratitude and his urge to console his companion. Her wistfulness and refusal to be comforted are easier to understand immediately as the earlier comparison to the winter landscape already introduced her loneliness and harsh character. The choice of verbs underlines the two companions’ contrasting emotions. “Schmiegen” implies softness and the speaker’s wish for closeness, whereas the much harsher words “zucken” and “abzuwinken”, both of which contain the voiceless velar plosive [k] and the voiceless alveolar affricate [ts], convey the other’s refusal. The two verbs combine the repulsing actions of two different images: shaking off something and stopping it with a wave of one’s …show more content…
To the reader, it is not immediately apparent that the stanza is one long question since German sentences starting with verbs can also be shortened forms of conditional clauses like in the third verse. At first glance, a similar causal clause seems to start in the fifth verse. Only at the end of the poem, the real nature of the sentence becomes apparent. In the fifth verse, George used the phrase “bei etw. verharren” (to remain with sth., v. 5), instead of for example “auf etw. beharren” (to persist on sth.), to convey the companion’s steadfast refusal. The last two verses do not necessarily describe a stroll she takes with the speaker at the moment of narration. As Morwitz points out, they convey that the only way in which she allows herself to express their spiritual kinship is her willingness to stroll together with the speaker along the river, which appears like a copy of the cool clarity of her soul that is absorbed in deep sleep. The river is described as “eisigklar” and “tief-entschlafen”. Both adjectives convey a positive calmness and harshness at the same time. The word “eisigklar” is a neologism that connects the perception of coldness and clarity in an almost synaesthetic manner. Its resemblance to “eiskalt” or “eisig kalt” might be the reason for the difference in Schönberg’s score. In the first fair copy, “eisigklaren” is written over the
They describe how his companion refuses the speaker’s closeness and consolation. The verses hint once again at their austere attitudes, as the personification of the speaker’s consolation and the other’s wistfulness makes it appear as if they are separated from their emotions. At first glance, his wish to comfort her seems strange in the context of his earlier mentioned gratitude (v. 1). First here, it is possible to understand the two previous verses. The speaker has found someone as lonely and unable to relate to others as himself and their shared sorrow is the reason for both his gratitude and his urge to console his companion. Her wistfulness and refusal to be comforted are easier to understand immediately as the earlier comparison to the winter landscape already introduced her loneliness and harsh character. The choice of verbs underlines the two companions’ contrasting emotions. “Schmiegen” implies softness and the speaker’s wish for closeness, whereas the much harsher words “zucken” and “abzuwinken”, both of which contain the voiceless velar plosive [k] and the voiceless alveolar affricate [ts], convey the other’s refusal. The two verbs combine the repulsing actions of two different images: shaking off something and stopping it with a wave of one’s …show more content…
To the reader, it is not immediately apparent that the stanza is one long question since German sentences starting with verbs can also be shortened forms of conditional clauses like in the third verse. At first glance, a similar causal clause seems to start in the fifth verse. Only at the end of the poem, the real nature of the sentence becomes apparent. In the fifth verse, George used the phrase “bei etw. verharren” (to remain with sth., v. 5), instead of for example “auf etw. beharren” (to persist on sth.), to convey the companion’s steadfast refusal. The last two verses do not necessarily describe a stroll she takes with the speaker at the moment of narration. As Morwitz points out, they convey that the only way in which she allows herself to express their spiritual kinship is her willingness to stroll together with the speaker along the river, which appears like a copy of the cool clarity of her soul that is absorbed in deep sleep. The river is described as “eisigklar” and “tief-entschlafen”. Both adjectives convey a positive calmness and harshness at the same time. The word “eisigklar” is a neologism that connects the perception of coldness and clarity in an almost synaesthetic manner. Its resemblance to “eiskalt” or “eisig kalt” might be the reason for the difference in Schönberg’s score. In the first fair copy, “eisigklaren” is written over the