SOURCE: "The Swing of the Pendulum: The Backward Movement, Withdrawal," in Else Lasker-Schiuer: The Broken World, Cambridge University Press, 1974, pp. 37-79.

In the following excerpt, Cohn examines several of Lasker-Schüler's works, demonstrating the departure from reality evidenced in her poetry.

It is my intention to show the bipolar structure of Else Lasker-Schüler's mode of being, as it manifests itself in her poetry. I have chosen to start with an examination of the various manifestations of her tendency to withdraw from reality, and to follow this with a consideration of the opposite tendency, her outgoing search for contact.

This order of examination is not immediately given by the bipolar structure of withdrawal and outgoing. Using the image of the swinging pendulum, it is clear that, to some extent, it is arbitrary at what point we start to describe its movement. Throughout Else Lasker-Schüler's life, outgoing and...