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... English
23-Sept-02
The Lorelei
Heinrich Heine
translated by Louis Untermeyer
I cannot tell why this imagined
Despair has fallen on me;
The ghost of an ancient legend
That will not let me be:
The air is cool, and twilight
Flows down the quiet Rhine:
A mountain alone in the high light
Still holds the faltering shine. ...
Heinrich Heine is one of the most popular German poets. ... Heine’s poetry owes much of its unique appeal to the subtle tension and interaction between the seemingly natural, homespun format and the flashes of his agile, sophisticated mind. In his poem “The Lorelei” Heine uses simple language and imagery to review that love is an inspiring thing but always ends destructively.
Heinrich Heine, son of the merchant Samson Heine and his wife Betty, was born in December 1797 in Duesseldorf, Germany. ... Because they were Jews, the members of Heine’s family were subject to severe restrictions. The prejudice he experienced in his youth made Heine a lifelong lover of freedom. In 1815, his father sent Heinrich to his uncle Salomon Heine, owner of a bank and millionaire in Hamburg, where he started merchant training. ... In 1819, Heine, supported by his rich uncle, enrolled in the University of Bonn, where he studied literature and history, and the next year he transferred to Goettingen to study law. Expelled from school for fighting a duel, Heine moved to Berlin in 1821 where he met the great German philosopher, Hegel, who profoundly influenced Heine’s philosophic outlook. Heine’s first volume of verse was published in 1822. ... Because the profession of law was prohibited to Jews at that time, Heine converted to Christianity in 1825 in order to obtain a law degree. ... This early experience and the suffering from the unrequited love may have been the sources for the themes of yearning, disappointment, and romantic irony in Heine’s later poetry. ... This work won success immediately and established Heine’s literary reputation.
Approximate Word count = 1628
Approximate Pages = 6.5
(250 words per page double spaced)
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