Children in the poetry of Bertolt Brecht : images of young people and examples for youthful audiences

Bertolt Brecht used both his poetry about children and that for them to crusade for an improvement in the human condition. This study discusses the influence which Brecht's association with children had on his general development as a poet and on his production of poetry for young people. Concentrating primarily on poetic works which featured figures of children and those which were written expressly for young people, the study treats three groups of poems: first, those which contain figures specifically identified as children of the Brecht family; second, those which contain characterizations of other, unidentifiable children; and finally, selected examples of the verses which the poet produced for young people.