Poems

Vocabulary Lists

Links

Introduction

Bertolt Brecht, arguably the most innovative and influential German playwright of the 20th century, is best known for his plays, many of which are regularly featured on the playbill rotations of major theaters. The Caucasian Chalk Circle, The Good Person of Sezuan, The Three Penny Opera, and Mother Courage are just a few of his plays with which many are acquainted.

Although most know him as a playwright, Brecht was also an accomplished and prolific poet. One existing poetic form with which Brecht chose to work a number of times over the years was the psalm. Having been raised in a traditional Christian environment in the Germany of the pre-Hitler period, Brecht was naturally familiar with the Bible and with the liturgical use of the psalms in the church, as was his intended audience of the time. Although Brecht rejected the organized church and the existence of God, he continued to see in these traditional forms a ready means of expression. 

Over the course of his extremely prolific career as a poet (one researcher lists Brecht's total output at around 2,300 poems), Brecht wrote approximately twenty-three poems that he referred to as psalms. This website is dedicated to the teaching of those poems. Here you will find three of Brecht's psalms accompanied by a short biography, vocabulary lists, and study questions for use in class or as homework.

If you have used any of these poems successfully in your classes and have additional ideas or activities to share, please send them to me at: 

Jennifer.Bjornstad@valpo.edu