SOURCE: "Journey into Dustlessness: The Lyrics of Nelly Sachs," in his On Modern German Literature, University of Alabama Press, 1967, pp. 194-215.

In the following essay, Kurz presents a deep analysis of Sachs's poetry, concentrating on her use of biblical imagery and of symbols including the butterfly.

Klaus Nonnenmann does not even mention Nelly Sachs in his Schriftsteller der Gegenwart ("Present-Day Writers"). The Kleines Lexikon der Weltliteratur ("Small Lexicon of World Literature") allots her only a third as much space as has been allotted the biography of Ingeborg Bachmann. Michael Landmann, a Berlin professor of philosophy closely connected with the ivory tower of Stefan George's former circle of disciples [the Georgekreis], complained in 1963: "Even today, fashionable abuse allows poems to be written—not certainly for the sake of musicality, but rather from extreme aversion to what can be rationally comprehended—which, like those of Nelly Sachs or Perse, either...