HEINRICH HEINE - Repositories

Heinrich Heine
sure I had done one lyric or one lyric passage as
good as Heine, I would let everything else I have
done go to the devil." ^^
Humbert Wolfe, writing in 1930, marvelled that
Heine's popularity in England had suffered no diminution
even though an entire century had passed
since this poet who had been cradled in the Rousseau
atmosphere of the Romantic generation had
first come to the fore. This enigmatic figure was the
eternal tenor in an everlasting spotlight: "And yet
he remains, and will remain to thrill generation after
generation of youth. Only Goethe among the Germans
rivals his poetic reputation, and, like Goethe's,
through all the changing whims of fashion, his star
suffers no declension. What is the secret of this German
Jew who became a French Christian, this revolutionary
who lived on Government funds, this
most weakling of lovers who died with a gallant jest
on his lips. The question itself carries part of the reply.
Heine did not say consciously 'Do I contradict
myself? Very well then, I contradict myself.' But
far more than Walt Whitman he imparted that
sharp savor of contrast that surprises and excites the
palate of the mind. He was a shocking sentimentalist,
but he was the first to recognize it. Humanity
that, in spite of all culture, wants a good cry and a
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