SOURCE: “‘Schneethlehem’: Four ‘Nonsense’ Poems by Hans Arp,” in Etudes Germaniques, Vol. 24, July, 1969, pp. 360-67.

In the following essay, Last analyzes Arp's “Schneethlehem” series as an example of his habit of rewriting and modifying his work.

Hans Arp's critics, as Günther Rimbach points out¹, fall into two main factions: those who regard his poems as the oracular utterances of an inscrutable mystic; and those—mainly academics—who damn him with faint praise as a Spieler juggling with words and phrases bereft of all meaning. Both sides, then, agree that Arp's poetry is beyond analysis. But to be what Marcel Jean calls one of the best German and French poets of the century², and yet almost totally meaningless, is a curious distinction indeed.

The issue of meaning in Arp's poetry is a complex one, and is best attacked from one specific angle. The most appropriate is Arp's habit...