HEINRICH HEINE - Repositories

Continuator of Goethe
tory of Heine's works as to mark his place in modern
European letters, his special tendency and significance.^^
He intended to make Romancero his
principal text. It was, therefore, Heine of the mattress-grave
whose face peered through the verse and
prose of Arnold.
Much of the inspiration for the poem has been
ascribed to Saint-Rene Taillander, a French critic,
whose article in the Revue des deux Mondes of
April 1, 1852, contained several details used by
Arnold both in the elegy and in the essay. Besides,
Taillander's article was preceded by an arresting
portrait of Heine on his death-bed, which might
have influenced Arnold's verses on the martyr of
Montmartre.
The poem begins with a description of Heine's
tomb. There the German poet knows quiet. Paris
is but a faint murmur outside. Surely, Heine was
not loath to come away from the uproar of the
streets and the pain of existence in order to sleep
in Montmartre under the wings of renown. It is
true that, when alive, he never yielded to pain.
Though a weak son of mankind, he raised his brow
to the stars and defied the storms of misfortune.
Calmness was never his lot on earth and calmness
IS not his even in the grave. Sweet Virgil, austere
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