1172: TLS SEPTEMBER 17 1976

attitude, gesture, situation of the speaker; all the elements, including pauses and line-endings as well as the natural stress of speech, are counted as rhythmical elements, and produce the syncopated and rough rhythms characteristic of Brecht.

This irregular, rhymeless form does not occur in all Brecht's poems, by any means. Though he needed to defend this form, he also said that a writer must have several styles, for different purposes. He himself continued to use regular metres and rhymes in many poems, for instance for political songs, and in many reflective poems; he sometimes used classical metres, with an appropriate abstract and elevated diction. His long fragment "On the Nature of Man", containing his versification of the *Communist Manifesto*, and the great Empedokles poem, are in classical hexameters. He also wrote a considerable number of highly wrought sonnets. From the mid-1930s, when he became acquainted with Arthur Waley's translations of Chinese poetry, he often used this form in his short poems, in which the freedom of the form requires the utmost artistry of condensation. The "quick one" would never be tied down to dogma, not even his own, and used the form that seemed most appropriate.

Brecht spent the years 1933-39 in the secure isolation of Denmark, near Svendborg, renewing contacts with friends and colleagues through visits. The isolation, the tragedies of exile, the frustration of political hopes, though largely eliminated from the political poems, begin to show in the last volume of verse that he published, *Svendborg Poems*, 1939. Even in the less public of the poems, Brecht rarely talks about himself directly and prefers "we" for the political movement or social group he identifies himself with; but there is a more personal tone and a more differentiated emotional implication. The two parts of "Thoughts on the Duration of Exile" indicate the conflict between public role and private reflection. The first gives the simple, aggressive stance:
> Don't knock any nails in the wall
> Just throw your coat on the chair.
> Why plan for four days?

Tomorrow you'll go back home.
Leave the little tree without water.
Why plant a tree now? etc.

The second shows the complexity, the doubts, the actions that belie the confidence:

Look at the nail you knocked into the wall:

When do you think you will go back?

Do you want to know what your heart of hearts is saying?

Day after day

You work for the liberation.

You sit in your room, writing.

Do you want to know what you think of your work?

Look at the little chestnut tree in the corner of the yard—

You carried a full can of water to it.

In the communist movement Brecht had discovered a new joy, the joy of the learner, of the teacher-pupil relationship, and this theme became constant in his verse. It takes its happiest form in the idyll, "Legend of the Origin of the Book Tao-Te-Ching", in which the urgent question of the ignorant customs officer elicits the book of wisdom from the teacher. "Questions of a Reading Worker" evokes the same intensity of learning as Franz Masereel's woodcut of the reading worker in "The Passion of a Man".

The young Alexander conquered India—

Was he alone? ...

So many reports.

So many questions.

But the relationship is also problematic. In the noble hexameters of "The Shoe of Empedokles", the teacher arranges his death in such a way that the wish of his disciples to deify him and his doctrine will be thwarted. In "The Peasant's Address to his Ox", the teacher, the leader, has become the tyrant:

> O great Ox, divine puller of the plough

> Deign to plough straight! Kindly

> Don't veer to right or left! You
> Lead the way, O Leader, Hup!

> We bent our backs to reap your fodder!

> Deign now to eat it, dear Provider!
> As you eat

> Don't fret about the furrow: eat away!

TLS SEPTEMBER 17 1976: 1171

WHITE LION

at Frankfurt-Stand No. - 9563

White Lion are pleased to announce that they have formed a
New Books Division to create original trade books alongside
their well-known Reprint List.

Subjects will cover all kinds of hardback non-fiction with a
strong bias towards practical books, topical areas of interest
and children's books.

At the Fair will be CAROLE FAHY, Publisher and Editorial
Director of New Books, and SIMON BOTT, Editorial Director
of Reprints.

*** NEW BOOKS—OCTOBER 1976

THE SUNDAY EXPRESS WEEKEND GARDENING BOOK

MAXWELL DAVIDSON Cartoons by BILL MARTIN

Gardening can be fun, and here is the book to prove it. The Sunday
Express gardening columnist shows you the easiest and best ways
of getting the kind of garden you want.

7274 0151 3 192pp 16 cartoons num line dwgs £4.25

ACE OF DIAMONDS IN NEW YORK

BRIAN BENABO Illustrated by CAROLE VAUCHER

Delightful tale of a pack of cards and the search for their missing
Ace—from London to Nickle N. Nuncle in New York.

From the author of 'Moonlight Kingdom.'

85686 280 0 80pp 8pp illus £2.50

FROM THE FOUR WINDS RANDLE MANWARING

Perceptive poems, contrasting the countryside and the towns of
England today, are beautifully and individually illustrated.

From the author of 'Crossroads of the Year.'

85686 216 9 52pp illus £2.50

*** NEW BOOKS—1977

WHAT IS MUSIC? SIR NEVILLE CARDUS

DEAD WATER ... DEAD EARTH?

By an eminent marine biologist

THE PHOTOGRAPHERS' GUIDE

DOLLS OF THE WORLD

THE HOMEMAKERS' BOOK OF HANDICRAFTS

LIVING WITH YOUR CHILDREN

SO YOUR CHILDREN WANT A PONY?

VICTORIA PETRIE-HAY

COMIC SPEECHES FOR ALL OCCASIONS

150 COMEDY PROPS

HANG GLIDING BRIAN MILTON

*** SPECIAL SERIES—1977-78

THE WHITE LION AMATEUR DRAMATICS LIBRARY

*In preparation:* How to make Scenery, Costumes and Props; Wigs and Make-up; How to run an Amateur Dramatic Society; How to Act; How to put on a Show; Costumes and Props for Gilbert and Sullivan; Floats and Fancy Dress Costumes.