 Susman’s first monograph, Das Wesen der modernen deutschen Lyrik (The Character of Modern German Poetry, 1910) examines the philosophical significance of modern poetry from Goethe to George and Rilke. Tracking the trajectory of the emergence of modern poetry as a distinct art form with its own artistic logics, Susman’s treatise presents a critical intervention against Wilhelm Dilthey’s conception of poetry as a reflection of the poet’s authentic experience, i.e., Erlebnis as distinguished from Erfahrung, which is a product of discursive reasoning. Taking her cue from Simmel’s approach to art, Susman attends to poetry’s generative power. Poetry generates its own forms artistically rather than deriving them from a pre-existent order of life.