Hamburg

video|right|300px right|300pxHamburg is the second largest city in Germany (with over 1.8 million inhabitants in the city proper and 5 million inhabitants in its metropolitan region). As one of the most affluent cities in Europe, it boasts the second largest port on the continent (behind Rotterdam) and remains a primary hub of tourism for both Germans and foreigners. It is a media and industrial center and remains a central player in the banking industry with Berenberg Bank claiming to be the second oldest bank in the world. In recent years it has ranked as high as 10th in the world in livability. During WWII, Allied air raids devastated the city, causing the death of over 42,000 inhabitants. After its postwar reconstruction, Hamburg grew into a major cultural center and is home to numerous theaters, museums, and music venues. Between 1960-1962 The Beatles launched their music careers by honing their skills in the thriving club scene there.
Hamburg appears in Steven's poem "Lions in Sweden." In this poem about the inadequacy of classical apparatus ("sovereigns of the soul") to form or account for the modern world-view, Stevens references "monsier Dufy's Hamburg" as an image of such classical forms. Raoul Dufy was a fauvist painter and illustrator who created plates for Apollinaire's Le Bestiare. Several of Dufy's woodcuts feature lions as lordly creatures often portrayed in classical statues. One verse which features such a lion reads, "O Lion, unhappy images of Kings, lamentably fallen; you are born now only in a cage in Hamburg, Germany." (Maguire 28) That a man still "hankers after lions", then, suggests for Stevens the inclination of the modern soul to desire the narratives and images that have preceded it, despite their inadequacy. The lions now are caged, and Hamburg is notable for its large Zoo.
Bibliography
McGuire, Kathryn B. "Stevens' "Lions in Sweden." Explicator. 46.3 (1988): 26-28. JSTOR. Web. 13 March 2014