GEORG TRAKL (1887-1914) was an Austrian lyric poet and one of the principal writers to set the dark, introspective tone that later influenced the course of German Expressionism.

Trakl trained as a pharmacist at the University of Vienna (1908-10).  He led an unhappy existence; he was moody and withdrawn and had become addicted to drugs as early as 1904.  Moreover, he felt an incestuous attraction to his younger sister Margarete and was plagued by restless wanderlust.

Although he wrote poetry from an early age, Trakl's best work dates from the final two years of his life, displaying a noticeable development from his efforts prior to 1912.  Where personal torment and an unrelieved sense of horror and disintegration dominated the earlier poems, the tone of Trakl's later poems is more impersonal and ambiguous, transcending the extreme subjectivity of his former poetic self to universalize his existential vision.  His language is simple and clear, resembling the work of Holderlin, with strong and precise imagery, darkly brooding sensitivity, and an adept feeling for color. 

Literary critic Herbert Lindenberger wrote of Trakl: "The lofty stance, the cosmic range, and the haunting music of Trakl's poetry now mark him, with Rilke, as perhaps the last great representative of what could be called the sublime tradition in German."


The following books are in PDF or ePUB format as indicated:

* Poems and Prose: A Bilingual Edition (Northwestern UP, 2005).  Translated by Alexander Stillmark. -- PDF

* To the Silenced: Selected Poems (Arc, 2005).  Translated by Will Stone. -- ePUB

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