Heinrich Heine was born in DÜsseldorf, December 13, 1797, of Jewish parents. The Napoleonic Wars were among the chief impressions of his childhood. He saw Napoleon ride through DÜsseldorf; he saw the tattered remains of the Grande ArmÉe return from the disastrous Russian campaign; and although not without the patriotic fervor of the German youth, he could not but admire the genius of the great Corsican (46). At Hamburg the young Heine was to enter upon a commercial career under the guidance of his rich uncle, but failed. An unrequited love for his cousin Amalie Heine became for a number of years the subject of his song. His favorite, almost exclusive vehicle; of expression is the simple stanza of the Volkslied, which he uses with consummate skill for new effects. Heine's attempts in law proved as futile as those in business; although he did pass his examination for the degree of Doctor juris, the study of poetry had been his chief endeavor in his university career. Finally he decided to make literature his profession. Disgruntled with things in general and more especially with Germany—he had been crossed in his love for Amalie's younger sister Therese, the rich uncle not wanting a penniless poet for a son-in-law—Heine went to Paris in 1831, where he lived till his death (February 17, 1856), often reviling but always cherishing and loving Germany, the country of sweet romantic song. Compare his poem In der Fremde (64).

46. The theme of the poem is the loyalty of the humble soldier to his chosen hero. Its tone is utterly realistic, its language and metaphors those of everyday prose. Notice the effects Heine achieves by varying the number of unaccented syllables, e.g., 13 and 33, X — X — X — X — and X — XX — XX — XX —.

2. WAREN GEFANGEN, had been captives.

6. VERLOREN GEHEN, to be lost.

10. WOHL, indeed; OB, because of.

11. MIR IST WEH, I am sore at heart; mir wird weh?

13. DAS LIED IST AUS, the jig is up, all is over.

18. ICH TRAGE, I bear, I cherish.

47—58. A rearrangement from two cycles, Lyrisches Intermezzo and Heimkehr. The main theme is the poet's unrequited love for his cousin Amalie Heine (49, Therese).

48. The Lorelei is the name of a high cliff overlooking the Rhine. Clemens Brentano invented the myth, and the theme became popular in the early decades of the nineteenth century. Heine gave it its final form, in which it has practically become a folksong. The first four lines give us the mood of the poet, the second four give the setting of the action. 9-22 describe the action. Notice the utter simplicity of 21 and 22, which characterizes also the short epilogue, 23 and 24. This simple way of ending a poem Heine has in common with the folksong.

4. That does not leave my thought.

18. Impersonal, best rendered by the passive.

50. Notice that this poem has the same tripartite structure as the preceding. (Heine's decided preference for this structure is evinced by the great number of poems of three stanzas.)

3. GANGES, river in India.

9. This bit of nature description, although unconventional, does not lack truth. Goethe offers a similar example, when he speaks of schalkhafte (roguish, waggish) Veilchen.

51. One of the finest of Heine's nature poems.

52.—6. MORGENLAND, see Vocabulary.

53.—8. NEBELTANZ, the dance of the mists.

54. Notice the realism of tone, not a word that rises above the plane of everyday prose. A whole tragedy compressed into three stanzas.

6, 7. The first man that happened to come her way.

8. IST ÜBEL DRAN, is in a sad fix.

55. Compare 42, where the Stimmung, the mood, of a bit of nature is expressed without any reference to any human element. In this poem of Heine the charm of the evening is embodied in the fair nymph. Compare 37. The same tendency is apparent in many of the paintings of Schwind and BÖcklin.

56. Stanzas 1-3 are each divided into two equal parts. In the third stanza, however, the line of division is less marked; notice also the effect of the inversion in 12: Taucht er ins Flutengrab, — XX — X —. In the fourth stanza each line stands by itself.

57. Notice the effect of the rhyme combining the first and fourth lines of each stanza. The first two lines of each stanza have four accents, the last two, three. Notice how the metrical structure of the line is made subservient to the mood expressed; this is especially true of 3: Es dunkelt schon, mich schlÄfert, X — X — "" X — X.

59. An apotheosis of Christ, who is represented as the spirit of universal love permeating all things.

17. SONNENHERZ, sun heart, since the sun is his heart.

22 ff. These lines imitate clearly the pealing of church bells.

36. SCHAUERND IN, thrilled with.

60. Notice the dainty effect of the tone coloring, heightened by the skilful use of impure rhymes.

61. The charm of this poem, as of many of Heine's, lies in its suggestive power. The course of events is only dimly sketched, the tragic end hardly more than alluded to. While the first two stanzas are composed of two equal parts each, the last is composed of four.

62.—2, 4. WOHL, translate: They do, etc.

63. Of Heine's poems this was the favorite of Lenau. Absolute unity of form and content: ceaseless change in ceaseless monotony.

7. WO SIND SIE HIN? Whither are they gone?

64.—5. DAS, without any definite antecedent.

65. The inscription on Heine's grave in Paris. Compare with it Robert Louis Stevenson's Requiem.

5. WO = irgendwo, somewhere.

11. TOTENLAMPEN, lamps burned in the vaults in honor of the dead.