Lyrics in Brecht's Works

Authors

Abstract

Bertolt Brecht composed poems, focusing on the political, social and economic situations of his time. This fact could also be seen in his plays. With this outlook Brecht challenges the readers of his work with regard to the social problems of their time. Doing so, the reader finds himself in a difficult task that tests his ability and skill to resolve the problems. The initial poems of Brecht show his nihilistic, anarchistic and expressionistic opinion. He also tried to question the Bourgeoisie which can be considerd as an essential characteristic of his early plays. In the middle of the third decade Brecht has shown Marxist tendencies in his plays and has tried to condense Marxist opinions. During his emigration and in order to fight against Fascism, Brecht adopted a new style in composing his poems. He started to compose them ignoring rhythm and rhyme. He felt certain that rhythm and rhyme were an obstacle in expressing social problems. Although Brecht started to compose political poems after the Second World War, the conception of love can be traced in the lyrics of the later period of his artistic activity.

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