Umbra Vitae By George Heym

As modern urbanization began rapidly improving, people began to either panic from the fear of the unknown dangers of modernization or experience a lost of identity as they conformed to the new advancements. Through apocalyptic imagery and dark personification, Georg Heym, in his poem “Umbra Vitae”, not only depicts a death of a time but also, death of individualism.

The apocalyptic theme prevails throughout Heym’s poem. This age of new technology is seen as the end of the world. The poem opens up with the people’s eyes fixed on a comet. This comet comes as a sign of the end with its fiery trials that “creep threateningly about the serrated towers”. This opening scene is also an allusion to the panic of Halley’s comet in 1910 therefore