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The article sketches a basic understanding of expressive properties as possessed by lyrical texts. Thus a lyrical text is expressive of, say, grief, if it is experienced as expressive of grief on the basis of an appropriate reading. Our theoretical outline of expressive properties gets substantiated by two case studies (on Schwarze Bohnen by Sarah Kirsch and Reference Back by Philip Larkin). Based on these, we reassess the importance of expressiveness for lyrical texts of the modern period. In particular, we argue that, contrary to received opinion, expressiveness is of great importance for the appreciation of modern lyrical texts; that these texts may be expressive of specific ›modern‹ sentiments; that expressive properties are important especially for lyrical texts which feature a high measure of linguistic innovation or non-standard language use; and that lyrical texts of the modern period exhibit new textual means for displaying expressive properties.