I will try to round off my argument on Hofmannsthal's lyric by correlating its metaphysical, linguistic and social aspects in the discussion of a single short text. The main theoretical question I will raise is that of the mysterious moment of silence before a poem's speaking begins. My point is that for Hofmannsthal the idea of the poem as a piece of writing is not inconsistent with the idea of its unfolding as a kind of drama, and that this combination of qualities creates problems that then reverberate in the theory of drama itself.

With reference to my argument concerning Hofmannsthal's refusal to attempt a transcendence of conceptual language, the reader may be tempted to quote from “Poesie und Leben,” a text I used in support of that argument: