poem lacks the polish and maturity so typical of the poet's later work. The year 1907 was a crucial one for a young Roman Catholic who longed to become a writer, especially one whose idols had been poets such as Richard Dehmel and Frank Wedekind; for it was in 1907 that Pope Pius X issued the encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis bitterly condemning modernism in the arts. As with later more serious threats to his freedom of expression, Carossa was not deeply moved by this order from his church. Other literary and political figures fought the encyclical vigorously; Carossa neither complied nor complained. It is evident from the Hofmannsthal-Carossa correspondence of the period that in the following year, 1908, Carossa all but quit medicine in favor of writing. Actually the literary career of young doctor Carossa only began three years later with a little forty-eight page collection of poems simply titled Gedichte. The publication of this book also marked the inauguration of Carossa's lifelong association with the Insel publishing house. The problem of the relationship between the doctor and his patient, especially the moribund patient, tore at the soul of the youthful physician. It was natural that Carossa should attempt, as his literary idol Goethe had done in Werther, to write his way out of his most perplexing problems. In fact, Carossa's Doktor Bürgers Ende of 1913 had too much in common with Werther, not only in its motivation, but also in form and plot, to be an original artistic creation. It represents, rather the culmination of the author's period of imitation which had started with the apery of contemporary modernists, and worked backwards in time, until in copying Goethe, Carossa discovered himself. As a guiding thought or Leitwort for Doktor Bürger Carossa splendidly epitomized his patient-doctor relationship in ideas borrowed from his father: Ja, meinem Herzen am nächsten sind jetzt die Verlorenen, die, von denen ich weiss, dass ich sie nicht retten werde. In the years just before World War I, literary interests were the chief concern in the young doctor's life. He took notes, planned works, and sought companionship and criticism of such literary figures as Rilke and Hofmannsthal. World War I In 1914 Carossa, who was a little too old to be called up immediately, volunteered as an army physician. While doing the inevitable waiting so common to all military service, Carossa collected childhood memories into what was