READING HEINRICH HEINE

The tribe of Harry: Heine and contemporary poetry 249
philosophical poems. Andersch alludes to Heine, not because of any precise
derivation of style, form, or diction, but because by the late 1950s, and in
the context of the West German restoration and the Cold War, Heine had
been reduced to his representative role as the poet of the left, irrespective
of the particular linguistic effects or poetic ‘themes’ which might provide
some concrete measure of his influence.
For asuccession of post-war poets, however, Heine’s political reputation
is more than a convenient cliché, because their own verse is closer to
the profane line. Quite apart from the cynicism and studied awkwardness
to which Heine subjects the poetry of romantic love in Buch der Lieder,
his resistance to versions of the Sublime can be found in the parody of
Klopstock and Ossian in the Harzreise episode of the tired and emotional
students who become trapped in a wardrobe, as well as in the Captain’s
question ‘Doctor, what the devil’s got into you?’ at the end of ‘Seegespenst’
(‘Sea Apparition’) from the Buch der Lieder ‘Nordsee’ cycle. Such profanity
sets a tone which eventually settles in the threadbare secularism of ‘Der
Apollogott’ in Romanzero. This is the Heine who nourishes the cynical
and deflating effects in early Expressionist poets such as van Hoddis and
Lichtenstein. Among contemporary writers, Wolf Biermann’s memories of
Heine in Paris provide a telling instance of this anti-poetic tone in ‘Auf dem
Friedhof am Montmartre’ (‘In the cemetery in Montmartre’): 10
Auf dem Friedhof am Montmartre
Weint sich aus der Winterhimmel
Und ich spring mit dünnen Schuhen
Über Pfützen, darin schwimmen
Kippen, die sich langsam öffnen
Kötel von Pariser Hunden
Undsohatt’ ich nasse Füße
Als ich Heines Grab gefunden.
Unter weißem Marmor frieren
Im Exil seine Gebeine
Mit ihm liegt da Frau Mathilde
Undsofriert er nicht alleine.
Doch sie heißt nicht mehr Mathilde
Eingemeißelt in dem Steine
Steht da groß sein großer Name
Und darunter bloß: Frau Heine
UndimKriege, als die Deutschen
An das Hakenkreuz die Seine-
Stadt genagelt hatten, störte
Sie der Name Henri Heine!