The Best American Poetry

Did Freud Die? And if so, when? [by David Lehman]

I) Yes, he died

(1) At Freiberg (then part of Moravia) of a gunshot wound said to be self-inflicted on 6 May 1856

(2) In London of throat cancer on 23 September 1939

(3) Brokenhearted in North London of bronchitis on March 14, 1883

(4) In Paris, executed by guillotine, 28 July 1794

(5) In Warm Springs, Georgia, on April 12, 1945.

(6) When his boat went down in a sudden storm off the coast of the Gulf of Spezia. on July 8, 1822.

(7) Drinking a goblet of hemlock 399 years BC

II). No, he did not die. He changed his name. He outlived Hitler. Beethoven's Ninth was the symphonic apotheosis of an ode to him. Freud means joy. Freud sounds like freedom. Freud is too close to fraud for comfort. 

Extra credit:

What were Freud's last words? And who said the others?
(1) Mehr licht! Mehr licht!
(2) More beer!
(3) Either the wallpaper goes, or I do.
(3) Friends, applaud! The comedy is finished.
(4) Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something.
(5) Am I dying, or is it my birthday?
(6) Nothing is easy for a dying man.
(7) "Good dog.” (Technically: vot sobaka.)

Thank you to our sponsors, including Beethoven, Nancy Cunard,  Benjamin Franklin, Freud, Goethe,  Lenin, Marx,, Gertrude Stein, Pancho Villa, Oscar Wilde, Nero Wolfe.

Name the object. It's in Vienna. 

I) Yes, he died

(1) At Freiberg (then part of Moravia) of a gunshot wound said to be self-inflicted on 6 May 1856

(2) In London of throat cancer on 23 September 1939

(3) Brokenhearted in North London of bronchitis on March 14, 1883

(4) In Paris, executed by guillotine, 28 July 1794

(5) In Warm Springs, Georgia, on April 12, 1945.

(6) When his boat went down in a sudden storm off the coast of the Gulf of Spezia. on July 8, 1822.

(7) Drinking a goblet of hemlock 399 years BC

II). No, he did not die. He changed his name. He outlived Hitler. Beethoven's Ninth was the symphonic apotheosis of an ode to him. Freud means joy. Freud sounds like freedom. Freud is too close to fraud for comfort. 

Extra credit:

What were Freud's last words? And who said the others?
(1) Mehr licht! Mehr licht!
(2) More beer!
(3) Either the wallpaper goes, or I do.
(3) Friends, applaud! The comedy is finished.
(4) Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something.
(5) Am I dying, or is it my birthday?
(6) Nothing is easy for a dying man.
(7) "Good dog.” (Technically: vot sobaka.)

Thank you to our sponsors, including Beethoven, Nancy Cunard,  Benjamin Franklin, Freud, Goethe,  Lenin, Marx,, Gertrude Stein, Pancho Villa, Oscar Wilde, Nero Wolfe.

Name the object. It's in Vienna. 

I) Yes, he died

(1) At Freiberg (then part of Moravia) of a gunshot wound said to be self-inflicted on 6 May 1856

(2) In London of throat cancer on 23 September 1939

(3) Brokenhearted in North London of bronchitis on March 14, 1883

(4) In Paris, executed by guillotine, 28 July 1794

(5) In Warm Springs, Georgia, on April 12, 1945.

(6) When his boat went down in a sudden storm off the coast of the Gulf of Spezia. on July 8, 1822.

(7) Drinking a goblet of hemlock 399 years BC

II). No, he did not die. He changed his name. He outlived Hitler. Beethoven's Ninth was the symphonic apotheosis of an ode to him. Freud means joy. Freud sounds like freedom. Freud is too close to fraud for comfort. 

Extra credit:

What were Freud's last words? And who said the others?
(1) Mehr licht! Mehr licht!
(2) More beer!
(3) Either the wallpaper goes, or I do.
(3) Friends, applaud! The comedy is finished.
(4) Don't let it end like this. Tell them I said something.
(5) Am I dying, or is it my birthday?
(6) Nothing is easy for a dying man.
(7) "Good dog.” (Technically: vot sobaka.)

Thank you to our sponsors, including Beethoven, Nancy Cunard,  Benjamin Franklin, Freud, Goethe,  Lenin, Marx,, Gertrude Stein, Pancho Villa, Oscar Wilde, Nero Wolfe.

Name the object. It's in Vienna. 

Comments

[Joel Weiner]

The object is Freud's couch draped in a Persian rug.
Sigmund loved both.

[Mary F Morris]

Freud's couch resides at his residence in London, where he and his family moved during the regime. It is fantastic, as are all of his artifacts.

[Joel Weiner]

Funny. I was psychoanalyzed in Vienna on Freuds couch before it moved to London.

[Bruno Anthony]

The couch was in Vienna in 1998.