Možný adresát Máchovy básně „O Muse“ aneb básník mezi (duchovními) proudy
Mácha’s poem O Muse and its possible addressee: The poet between (intellectual) streams

Summary/Abstract: This paper focuses on Mácha’s poem O Muse, which is generally considered to be his most mature, and possibly his last, German poem. Based on previous standpoints it is also assessed as a poem in which Mácha departs from a Christian world-view, but this conclusion is elaborated in the sense that it is a departure from the Enlightenment conception of God as the creator of a perfect world and a concerned Father. In contrast to previous research it formulates two hypotheses: firstly the theory that this is a funeral poem and that it is the poet’s farewell to A. Klar. The fact that Klar was thus the addressee of two congratulatory poems (City vděčnosti [Feelings of Gratitude] and Stimmen zur Namensfeier) and one funeral poem, and that he is described in Stimmen zum Namensfeier as the teacher who showed the author that poetry was to be his lifelong career, indicates that Klar played a much more prominent role in the poet’s personal development than is generally thought. Secondly, a comparison of Mácha’s poetics and those of the poems in Klar’s 1822 and 1829 anthologies bolsters the hypothesis that Mácha’s poetics were formed in close association with the type of poems that were personally presented to the young poet by A. Klar.

• Details
• Contents