Somehow in my university studies we never studied the Baroque period in any depth, which is a pity, for there is much to be admired. This was brought home to me recently when I read Ralph Rothmann's 2018 novel Der Gott jenes Sommers (See my review), in which he quotes a stanza of Grabschrift Marianae Gryphiae ("Epithaph of Marianna Gryphius") by the poet Andreas Gryphius (1616-1664). That very moving poem compelled me to look into other poems by Gryphius. Some of his best poems, and best-known poems, can be found in his first collection - Sonnete - published in 1637, also probably the first sonnet cycle in German language. In many of the poems Gryphius displays amazing poetic control - for a poet of only 20 years of age - as well as innovation within the confines of the Baroque conventions.

One of the most powerful - a well-known - poems in the cycle is Es ist alles Eitel ("All is Vanity"). The poem deals with the Baroque theme that life - and everything material - is ephemeral. The sonnet is constructed with dichotomies: what's here today is gone tomorrow. Cities become meadows where sheep graze, victorious armies strutting proudly become ash and bone, and so on. The poem is neatly divided between two quatrains ending in two tercets. God ("Du") is addressed in the first half as He surveys the vanity of His creation. This shifts to "wir" (we), His pathetic creation ("Nichtigkeit") unable, or unwilling (ambiguity of "will" in the last line) to seek for what is eternal. For a young man, Gryphius had certainly experienced his fair share of loss: he lost both parents at a young age, witnessed the horrors of war first hand, and fled from the horrible plague that killed those fortunate enough to escape the ravages of war. No wonder Rothmann was inspired by the poems fo Gryphius when writing about the death and destruction at the end of WWII. And today, Gryphius speaks to us as we watch the beautiful Notre Dame Cathedral engulfed in flames, or as cities flood due to man-made climate change.