"As when upon a day of rest…"

pp. 423-433

in: William Richardson, Heidegger, The Hague, Nijhoff, 1963

Abstract

The second of Heidegger's Hölderlin-interpretations stems from an oft repeated lecture in 1939–40 and treats of a poem without title that begins "As when upon a day of rest…"¹ Written in 1800, the poem is composed of seven strophes, and in it Hölderlin orchestrates again the meaning of the poet's task. It offers another reason for calling Hölderlin "the poet of the poet" and explains Heidegger's interest in the poem. For us, the essay is only of secondary importance, for the author speaks of thought only by indirection, yet we cannot afford to ignore it, because of the close analogy which Heidegger sees between poetic and philosophical thought.