Die Gretchenfrage

About this poem

This poem, Die Gretchenfrage (Gretchen’s Question) can be considered a companion to the poem, Creation, composed by the author in 1961, with its telling line describing mankind’s universal quest to know God, which reads as follows: “…So that the world was made of Alchemy that man might be confused…” The Gretchenfrage poem employs a title used in Goethe’s Faust, published in 1808, in which the character of Gretchen (diminutive form of the German name Margarete) poses a question (Die Gretchenfrage) to the protagonist concerning his views of religion. This “uncomfortable “ question reminds us, in the Book of Job, of Satan (The Adversary) enquiring of God concerning his views of his righteous earthly subject Job, the protagonist of that story. In both stories of the biblical Job and Goethe’s Faust, the Gretchenfrage is employed as a direct and challenging question seeking to unveil the hidden thoughts and attitudes of the presumed adversary. This poem invites us to consider Gretchen’s ‘question,’ “Die Gretchenfrage,” as a question pertaining to the archetypal nature of matters of theology and the esoteric in general that require an unending probing of the metaphysical. more »