On a first level of meaning Heinrich Detering’s poem Kilchberg is about Thomas Mann’s last years in the village of Kilchberg near Zurich in Switzerland, where the Nobel prize winner experienced the acute waning of his productive powers. Within a broader context the poem is about any writer’s plight for a lasting impression upon the world. The poem argues for the continuation of the often painful process of literary creation, as words will and can explain the world.
 

On a first level of meaning Heinrich Detering’s poem Kilchberg is about Thomas Mann’s last years in the village of Kilchberg near Zurich in Switzerland, where the Nobel prize winner experienced the acute waning of his productive powers. Within a broader context the poem is about any writer’s plight for a lasting impression upon the world. The poem argues for the continuation of the often painful process of literary creation, as words will and can explain the world.