In January and February 2007, Urs Widmer delivered his lectures on poetry at Lecture Hall VI at the University of Frankfurt – where Adorno once taught and the tumultuous events of 1968 took place. The lectures attracted so much attention – an audience of around 1200 –, that they had to be broadcast in an additional auditorium. This renowned series of lectures began in 1959/60 with Ingeborg Bachmann, who was followed by names such as Böll, Enzensberger, Christa Wolf, Dürrenmatt, Muschg, Grass and Jandl. The contents: On deviating from the norm. On the suffering of poets. On the dream of singing, anonymously, with the voice of the people. On imagination, on delusions of grandeur, on memory, on death and on life. On ›Oedipus Rex‹ and Sophocles. These five lectures are the sum of Urs Widmer's experiences with the poets and their works.