TABLE
OF CONTENTS THE
SEVEN 'FANNY ESSLER' POEMS TITLE/MAIN
PAGE
If Greve ever kept his
promise and sent Gide "his" Fanny Essler
poems, he must have done so after completing the cycle
in late March 1905. Only when seen together (2005
eEd.
; PEd 40-47) can their clever composition be fully
appreciated.
They are indeed carefully
structured to resemble a medieval wing-altar triptych:
First, the fictitious author (Else) deplores in two long,
lyrical poems (3 stanzas of 13 lines & 7 stanzas
of 4 lines; PEd 40-42) the absence of her unnamed lover
(Greve) as she admires in bitter-sweet loneliness the
beauty of exotic plants and landscapes in southern climes. "Tunis,
Herbst 1903" is specified next to the generic title "Gedichte/Poems."
Central in position and
importance, the next sequence (PEd 43-44) has the title Ein
Porträt: drei Sonette. The triplicity of names
in Greve's letter to Gide is repeated here in the functions
of author (Fanny Essler), subject (Greve) and narrator
(Else). The unity was then provided by Greve as author
who wrote under each of these names. Here, everything
revolves around Greve as subject.
The attempt to describe Him by
addressing three distinct,
characteristic details is similar to neo-impressionist,
particularly pointillist, painting techniques. It also
points once more to the centre piece of a medieval
altar triptych which often represents the Holy Trinity
in fructification scenes. This layer of visual allusion
to things medieval is reinforced by a clear, intertextual
reference to love poetry in the Petrarchan tradition.
The three sonnets
follow the strict canon is in form and theme,[26] each
presenting in turn Greve's hands (feminine,
yet brutal), eyes (cold and sharp, but clouded
by masks), and mouth (sensuous, but prone to
lies) in typically static close-ups.
Common to all three poems is the contradictory nature
of the attributes employed, but despite of this pervading
ambiguity, the narrator succeeds in conveying the essential
coldness and potential brutality of her object of adoration.
This corresponds with Greve's depiction as the elegant
Reelen in the novel Fanny Essler, in Freytag-Loringhoven's
autobiography, and in her poetry.
The two concluding untitled "Gedichte" (5
stanzas of 7 lines & 12 stanzas of 4 lines) evoke
a northern setting in the same way the two initial
poems suggested a southern one: the only flaw in the
otherwise perfect experience of a spectacular sunset
in Husum (PEd 45), or of fresh snow on a sunny winter
day on a Frisian shore (PEd 46-47) is again the lover's
absence.
The perfect formal symmetry
of these seven poems is reflected in their content:
in the centre, the elusive lover is described in a
strangely timeless, spaceless, and fractioned manner.
His central "portrait" is evenly flanked
by two wings of the narrator's personal reminiscences,
employing multiple North/South, Day/Night, Sun/Moon,
Fall/Winter, and Before/After dichotomies. These are
charged with symbolism and allow today to both locate
and date the scenes described.
The all-pervading theme
is the polarity of Absence in the four wing poems,
and Presence in the central sonnets. The latter, however,
is negated in a dialectic process: paradoxically, the
lover has far more present when Fanny/Else deplores
his absence than when he is the absolute centre of
her attention in his abstract portrait. The impression
of coldness governing the central three sonnets contaminates
the north and south flanks as well: the northern landscape
remains in tune with conventional winter themes, but
even the combination of a cheerful, blue sky and glittering,
white snow cannot make up for the void he creates.
The description of the southern setting, traditionally
associated with themes of spring or summer, fails to
reflect the couple's initially blissful experience
in Palermo. Instead, rather somber fall and evening
modes prevail which correspond to narrator Else's aggravation
caused by Greve's involuntarily confinement, and the
related, shocking revelation that he was not the independently
wealthy dandy he had pretended to be.
The structural and symbolic
resemblance to a wing-altar triptych can be represented
like this:
Left wing |
Centre-piece |
Right wing |
Biblical events:
time & place (historical)
Often before Crucifixation |
Trinity (3 in 1):
static
eternal & omnipresent
|
Biblical events:
time & place (historical)
Often after Fructification |
|
Gedichte |
Ein
Porträt:
Drei Sonette |
Gedichte |
2 untitled poems
Tunis=Palermo:
1. Fall / Sunset
2. Night / Moon
South
Greve's
absence
After: = Fall 1903
|
Title/Trinity (1
in 3: hands, eyes, mouth)
Placeless
Seasonless
Timeless
Directionless / Centre
Greve's presence
Timeless |
2 untitled poems
Husum=Wyk auf Föhr
1.
Winter / Sunset
2.
Day/Sun
North
Greve's absence
Before: = Fall 1902 |
Note that from present-day
perspective, a reversal of the final northern
and the initial southern wings would be required.
It was in Dr. Gmelin's Sanatorium in Boldixum,
near the town of Wyk on the Frisian island
Föhr (not Husum which is across the North
Sea on the mainland) that Else
Endell pined for Greve and started writing
poetry about him in the fall of 1902. This
was several weeks before they became
lovers at Christmas that year. In Palermo,
in May 1903, Fanny/Else had occasion to miss
Greve after he
had cut their blissful elopement short: going
to Bonn for a brief business matter, he was
never to return. Two long weeks later, she
found out by correspondence that he had been
arrested, tried, & sentenced.
NOTES:
[26]The
beloved woman was to be celebrated in sonnets
with canonized details, such as her blond hair,
dark eyes, delicate eyebrows, red lips, etc. The
result had the statuesque, sculptural, "Petrarchan" quality
of contemporary paintings. |