Grundstimmung

is the unifying fundamental source from whose impetus the poem emerges as from a nascent Gestalt; not primarily a state of mind within the poet, but a sense of things as newly revealed under the colouring of the emergent poem.

The Grundstimmung is the unifying fundamental source from whose impetus the poem emerges as from a nascent Gestalt. It is not primarily a state of mind within the poet, but a sense of things as newly revealed under the colouring of the emergent poem: the poet speaks by virtue of a tone [Stimmung] which sets [bestimmt] the ground and base and stakes out [durchstimmt] the space from and in which the poetic saying establishes a mode of being.

is not an undulating state of emotion merely accompanying the language: rather, the fundamental tone opens the world which receives the imprint of its being in poetic speech.

This tone we name the fundamental tone of the poetry. By fundamental tone, however, we do not mean an undulating state of emotion merely accompanying the language: rather, the fundamental tone opens the world which receives the imprint of its being in poetic speech. (GA 39: 79)

grundstimmung, n.All

grundstimmung