SOURCE: "Georg Trakl: The Emergence of His Expressionist Idiom," in Review of National Literatures: German Expressionism, Griffon House Publications, Vol. 9, 1978, pp. 70-75.

In the following excerpt, Iraki's brief body of work is examined by way of his problematic metaphors, the absence of the poetic self, and his poetic vision.

Georg Trakl … is considered by many to be the foremost poet of the German Expressionist movement, even though he was not given the time to develop into a figure of public acclaim or controversy as was the case with some other Expressionists, notably Bertolt Brecht and Gottfried Benn. The First World War put an end to the life and work of a number of young German poets, Trakl among them. The announcement of death issued by Trakl's family carries the formula "died for the fatherland," an evasive phrase which disguises a tragedy that resulted from a terrible inner necessity...