Who is August Stramm

August Stramm (29 July 1874 – 1 September 1915) was a German war poet and playwright who is considered the first of the expressionists. Stramm's radically experimental verse and his major influence on all subsequent German poetry has caused him to be compared to Ezra Pound, Guillaume Apollinaire, James Joyce, and T.S. Eliot. A reserve officer in the Imperial German Army, Stramm was called up to active service at the outbreak of World War I and was killed in action on the Eastern Front.Jeremy Adler has called August Stramm one of, "the most innovative poets of the First World War."LifeEarly lifeAugust Stramm was born in Münster, Westphalia, in 1874. His father had served in the Prussian Army and had been decorated for bravery during the Franco-Prussian War. According to Patrick Bridgwate...
Read Full Biography

---

August Stramm Poems

• Frost Fire
  Toes deaden.
  Breath smelts to lead.
  Hot needles dance in fingers.
  Backs turn to snails.Ears hum coffee. ...
• Guard-duty
  A star frightens the steeple cross
  a horse gasps smoke
  iron clanks drowsily
  mists spread ...
• War Grave
  Staffs flehen cross arms
  Writing zagt pale unknown
  Flowers impudent
  Dust shyly. ...
• Wonder
  U Stands! U stands!
  And I
  And I
  I wing...
• Wounds
  Earth under the helmet flowers
  Falling stars
  Grope through space.
  Roaring shudders...

Read All Poems

---

August Stramm Quotes

Read All Quotes

---

Comments about August Stramm

• Walter24911538: before a painting of arp’s or a poem by august stramm it is impossible to take time for contemplation and evaluation as one would before a canvas of derain’s or a poem by rilke
• Walter24911538: before a painting of arp’s or a poem by august stramm it is impossible to take time for contemplation and evaluation as one would before a canvas of derain’s or a poem by rilke
• War_poets: 1 september 1915 august stramm is killed in hand-to-hand combat near kobryn in modern-day belarus.
• Lucylondon7: german ww1 soldier poet august stramm was killed on 1st september 1915
• Blown_through: an attempt to beget a bastard child of haiku and the style of august stramm:

Read All Comments