What Remains: The Collected Poems of Hannah Arendt [Hardcover]

Internationally renowned as one of the twentieth centurys foremost public intellectuals, Hannah Arendt was also intensely private. Though she often acknowledged that the language of poetryespecially that of Dickinson, Goethe, and Lowellinformed her work, only a few people knew that ArendtA landmark literary event, A new volume of [Arendts] poetry reveals that the author of sobering works like The strongest contribution of In These delightful poems provide a window into Arendts vibrant engagements with the world.... This volume is a treasure for fans of Arendt and poetry. In truth, Arendt the poet exhibits a real though not illimitable talent, a mind whose natural tilt is toward prose but which has a second-natural command, acquired through years of faithful recitation, of the volkslied and the ode. Arendts work on totalitarianism and her direct experience of escaping Europe are reflected in her poems, which are also in direct, at times allusive conversation with the German poets she treasured, including Goethe, H?lderlin, and Rilke. Their strength lies in their tenderness and self-exposure . . . These unsparing, literate, and surprisingly candid poems offer a fascinating new angle on one of the 20th centurys great minds. Readers well versed in Arendts influential political philosophy may not know that she also wrote poetry as a private affair. As quoted in editor/translator Hills introduction, Arendt saw poetry as the art whose end product remains closest to the thought that inspired it. . . . Accessible distillations of heart and mind; readers dont have to know Arendts philosophy (or philosophy generally) to read this work profitably and with pleasure. These poems construct a most personal, subtle, and affecting autobiography. They are intense, emotional and yet do not yield to our voyeuristic nature. Together these poems offer what the best impressionistic painters offered, a concentration on the underlying constituent parts of reality and a retel³'