Death and life after death in Martin Luther’s Latin elegies

Abstract

For the most part, scholars who are familiar with Martin Luther's Latin poems have dismissed them as of only marginal significance. This chapter argues that it was not just his fascination with the literary challenge that drew Luther to the composition of Latin verse, but that he found this particular literary medium exceptionally well suited to one of the most profound of all possible poetic themes, namely, death and life after death. Even if it is not stated so explicitly as it is in the German chorale, the promise of an eternal life, free from the sting of death, in the company of the risen Christ, seems implicit in Luther's Latin poem. The chapter shows that there are some very real differences between the way Luther handles the themes of death and life after death in his German hymns and his treatment of them in Latin verse. Keywords:Christ; death; German verse; Latin poem; life after death; Martin Luther