SOURCE: "Hölderlin and the Poetry of Edwin Muir," in Forum for Modern Language Studies, Vol. XVI, No. 1, January, 1980, pp. 12-32.

In the following essay, Gaskill examines "the various ways in which Muir's knowledge of Friedrich Hölderlin 's life and work manifests itself in his own poetry. "

From the time of his first acquaintance with the work of the German poet, in Hellerau in 1922/3, until his death in 1959, Edwin Muir remained a great admirer of the poetry of Hölderlin. There were naturally other poets for whom he had a very high regard, including not a few who wrote in German. One is nevertheless justified in claiming that Hölderlin meant something special for Muir. His discovery of Hölderlin coincided with his first serious attempts to write poetry. Over the years that followed he devoted four substantial essays to Hölderlin, reviewed books on him, featured...