The Selected Poetry of Erich Kastner

Kastner is one of the great satirists of the twentieth century and, after Goethe and Schiller, still one of the most widely read poets in Germany. Like other great comic or tragicomic artists, Kastner has created his own image of contemporary man, the lonely figure who seems to swing between the desire for the companionship of others and a frantic attempt to preserve his singleness. His poems speak to today’s social and political situations with a contemporary ring. Through satire, sarcasm and irony he mirrors our generation.