Streamlines of the Irretrievable

The poet and essayist Gustav Erhart (1951) has been writing poetry since the end of 1960s. Characteristic features of his style are mixing of archaisms and new coinages, interweaving of Czech and Latin, as well as an ingenious benevolence in the rhyme and rhythmic structure or musicality of the text, which is often achieved by using alliteration and assonance. In the song quality of some of his poems – though condensed into a verbal minimum – Erhart revives and calls to mind the ballads of Erben, feeding off the poetics of old folk myths and tales only to soar into the metaphysical and hermetic spheres in the next line. Also characteristic of Erhart’s poetry are explicit or hidden references to the authors that played part in his poetic initiation: the cursed poets, poets of the decadence and surrealists.