HEINRICH HEINE - Repositories

Hellenist and Cultural Pessimist
Ah, the prophecy of old
Sung by Pan to scoffers cold! —
God and goddess droop and die,
Chilly cold against the sky.
Strange look Moon and Stars and Sun!
God and goddess fade, and see!
All their large eyes look at me!
While woe! ah, woe! in dying song, I fade, I fade, with
thee!
Heine's influence interpenetrated not only the
poetry of Robert Buchanan but also his prose.^ An
important essay by him in 1868, bore the title On
a Passage in Heine. It opened with a conversation
on immortality between Heine and the philosopher
Hegel. This conversation, humorously related by
Heine in his Confessions, was made the basis for
theological reflections by Buchanan, for an exposition
of the proper attitude to be assumed by mortals
in their relationship to God and to a world beyond.
In an essay on Tennyson, Heine, and de Musset,
Buchanan compared these three poets who, in his
opinion, brought to perfection the thoughts of
many generations of lyricists. He joined in the prevalent
evaluation of Heine as the greatest German
poet after Goethe.
Reviewing Theodore Martin's translation of
Heine, Buchanan criticized the English versifier for
missing the spirit of the subtle German lyricist even
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