Christine Lavant wrote poems that, due to their linguistic idiosyncrasy and existential turmoil, are considered among the highlights of German poetry by Thomas Bernhard. He described her poetry as the elemental testimony of a person abused by all good spirits. Lavant herself viewed her art as a mutilated life, a sin against the spirit, unforgivable, yet she was certain of the poetic power of her poems: When I wrote poetry, I tore away every part of your existence beneath your feet and presented it as something you had never perceived before in your innermost being. The first volume of the four-volume collected works gathers all the poems published during her lifetime in a completely newly edited version. It includes, in addition to the three volumes of poetry that established Lavant's fame, also.