Dinggedicht

[Tinker]

Explore the Craft of Writing
German-Austrian Verse

The Dinggedicht or Object Poem is a things poem.This is a genre of poetry in which communication of mood or thought is made through acute observation of things and symbolic concentration. It was introduced in the early 1900s by Austrian poet, Rainer Maria Rilke while studying impressionist paintings. It is closely connected to the imagist movement of the same time. It appears the difference may be in the subject of the observation. The dinggedicht appears to be more likely to observe man-made articles while the imagist tends to observe more natural surroundings. The story is told through the arrangement of inanimate objects or things from a distance or distracted point of view.  

The elements of the Dinggedicht are:

1. framed at the discretion of the poet.
2. formed by acute observations of concrete images in the world around, expressing symbolically an event, social condition, mood or idea.

    

   Paradise Adrift water gently laps at the edge of the shore where a soggy passport lies open face down next to broken palms and a tilted, scarred kitchen chair, one spindly leg buried deep in the foam-covered sand                ~~Judi Van Gorder 1-3-05 The Indian Ocean tsunami of Dec. 26, 2004, affected 11 countries and killed nearly 230,000 people,                                           making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history

   Not Again spent brass shells are scattered into corners of the main hall at a high school in Florida pools of blood smeared by rushing feet blight a classroom floor next to a discarded black backpack, the round, slate barrel of an automatic rifle still warm ~~Judi Van Gorder 2-15-18

    

German and Austrian Poetic Forms:

• Bar Form
• Dinggedicht
• Golliardic Verse
• Knittelvers
• Minnesang
• Nibelungen
• Shuttelreim