Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1865-05-19
HEINE.

Concerning this impassioned and erratic
German poet, writer observes: Heine' s
dramas and tragedies were the first windfall
OF his poetieal imagination. Only twenty
three years old when he wrote them, he was
then known as a young lyric poet, and a
dreamer in whom passion had already begun
to be an intolerable suffering, either ill-con-
eealed By bitter irony, or marked by heart
less defiance, yet giving him no truce. Ger
many was, therefore, taken by surprise, and
wondered, as the world has wondered ever
since, at so much audacity, so much fierce
and reckless independence, and such ready
courage to carry his colors unfurled to the
wind OF every passing opposition in so young
a man.
Yet the charm of Heine' writings is ire
sistible. They are so genuine, so simple, SO
truthful, frank and open-hearted, ahd moo
dy, like the unguarded capriciousness of a
child. His style is unique in It's airy light
ness, and in that exquieite music movement
we call grace. Now strong, impassioned,
and eloquent with the ardor of heart arous-
ed from It's depths, then suddenly falling
down to the softest tlute-like notes of suavi-
ty, till the expression dies away in tears.
For Heine lives In full In all he writes We
ind him at every turn of the page, loving
and suffering, with his unparalleled mobility
of nature, his rare qualities, his many vices;
the man and the artist, such as nature fash
ioned in one of her most daring moods.
Heine has no other hero but himself. When
he takes us TO thevoluptuous, sun-embrown-
ed Spain, or we follow him under the chilly
gray sky of Scotland, lingering in Italy, or
exied in Paris, it is always his own tormen-
lfx7na aUb hsa1 To-
which we contemplate as the stage upon
| which pre- first enacted the tragical follies oi
his life. He tells US himself Il have
yearned for pure ideal human love, and a
found nothing but bitter hatred; so | sighed
and | cursed
That very confession Of profound disap-
poIntment and of mournfu sadness draws
us so close to Heine, and at once creates be-
tween him and usa fast fellow-f feeling of sym
pathy. His exceptional nature mustremain
above reach of our small conventional foot
measure. He scorned restraints. Impulse
was the only law he recognized, and pleasure
the only divinity he worshipped; but we
should remember that strong lights project
strong shadows; besides we may admire the
artist, if not the man, if words that make
one of the most original and brilliant pages
in modern literature
1t is mostly as lyric poet that Heine has
won an enduring place in the heart Of the
people. All his poems are songs, inexpress-
IDLY sweet and sad. Some have about them
the plaintiff music of lullaby, and make us
drowsy and faint; others, on the contrary
sound like the wild wall of storm breaking
ON desolate shores, with not even the fit
ting vision of solitary sea bird. But all
alike are marked with the same vivid ina
ginatiyeness, lightness of touch and fantas-
tic humor. Noman ever wrote like Heine.
Too impressible for any great and sustained
intellectual effort he is SO varied and versa
tile, so rapid in his flights from thought to
sensation, and from criticism to pathetic ten
derness, that his genius draws upon all the
forces of our nature, and awakens to thefull
all its sensibilities.
His precision Of touch is remarkable.
Criticism with him is an intuition which
guides him unerringly in his sketches Of
character, or his estimate of pictures and
books. Unainchingly Independent of pub
lie opinion, he cared not for the frown OF
the malcontents who surrounded him. Lit
erature and art richly opened their treasures
to him; we know how delicately he has gath
cred the half hidden pollen out of every flow
er there