Richter-Michelle Wolff

The poem “End of the World” by Richard Huelsenbeck, greatly reflects some of the Dadaistic principles. Although it does reflect more than one principle, one of the key ideas, the “excitement over war and violence” is greatly shown in this poem. In an excerpt from the poem:

“That is the lavender landscape Herr Mayer was talking about

when he lost his eye

Only the fire department can drive the nightmare from the drawing-room

but all the hoses are broken”

This part of the piece starts off with a positive and sort of peaceful description. The words “lavender landscape” sound serene and calming. However, all this is changed with the next line of the poem. “…when he lost his eye,” puts a dramatic sort of spin on the statement now and the poem goes on to talk about and use the words “fire,” “nightmares” and “broken,” which are all usually associated with having negative connotations. When I read this, and now comparing it to the ideas of Dadaism, I see the clear connection in the excitement towards violence. By starting off this idea with the “lavender landscape,” the author is possibly trying to put a positive spin on the drama or give it a more peaceful feeling, to make it something that he likes rather than something that is thought of as bad or unwanted. Also, another aspect of this excerpt is the fact that not only is the author excited about drama, but also he sees it as a hero. Huelsenbeck illustrates this when he writes the specific sentence, “Only the fire department can drive the nightmare from the drawing-room but all the hoses are broken.”  Earlier in this post, I stated that the word “fire” is most often regarded as negative, but the words, “fire department,” are typically positive. When I think of a fire department, I think of a group of people who are risking their lives to save others. So the author is putting a positive spin on a negative action such as “when he lost his eye” or “but all the hoses are broken.”

            Another example that showcases this theme of “excitement over violence” is:

            “I hold peace and war in my toga but I’ll take a cherry flip.”

The author is contradicting himself as he states two opposite ideals: peace and war. Although this does touch on violence, since he does act as if peace and war could be two principles to put together in one, it actually touches more on a different Dadaistic concept. Dadaism talks a lot about the idea of “non-duality.” This statement in this poem perfectly reflects this as peace and war could not be more opposite.

            It is fascinating how much of Dadaism’s ideas are hidden in this poem. It was challenging to read this poem because at first it seemed as though there were so many different thoughts going on at once. But, as I read it over and over again, I was able to delve deeper into it and find the connections to Dadaism.