[17] Cf. Kosch's edition, XI, 308. Lochen himself utterly condemned this work later. See Pissin, pp. 238-39, 267-08. Pissin gives the number of verse and strophe forms on p. 266.
[18] Cf. Pissin, p. 267. Uhland made the remark in 1812—his own most fruitful year as a poet.
[19] The story was published in 1817. The full title is Das weisse Ross, eine altdeutsche Familienchronik in sechs und dreissig Bildern. It is 160 pages long.
[20] An idea as to the lack of action in this story can be derived from the following statement by Otto (pp. 127-28), the brave hero: "Was man Schicksale zu nennen pflegt, habe ich wenige gehabt, aber erfahren habe ich dennoch viel und mehr als mancher durch seine glänzenden Schicksale erfahren mag: nämlich die Führungen der ewigen Liebe habe ich erfahren, die keinen verlässt. und alles herrlich hinausfuhrt." And then Siegenot, the other hero, says that this is very true—whereupon they embrace each other.
[21] The story was first published In Urania: Taschenbuch für Damen auf das Jahr 1818. pp. 305-37.
[22] Aside from the poems in Pissin's collection in the D.L.D. des 18. u. 19. Jahr., Ignaz Hub's Deutschlands Balladen- und Romanzen-Dichter, Karlsruhe, 1845, contains: (1) "Romanze von der weissen Rose," (2) "Der Tanz mit dem Tode," (3) "Der Bergknapp," (4) "Das Schwanenlied." "Loreley" is also reprinted here, with modifications for the worse. "Schau', Schiffer, schau' nicht hinauf," is certainly not an improvement on Loeben's "Lieb Knabe, sieh' nicht hinauf,"
[23] The following are common forms: "Nez," "zwey," "versteken," "Sfären," "Saffo," "Stralenboten," "Abendrothen." "Uebermuth," and so on, though the regular forms, except in the case of "Saffo," also occur.
[24] "Der Abend" reminds one strongly of Hölderlin's "Die Nacht," while "Tag und Nacht" goes back undoubtedly to Novalis' "Hymnen an die Nacht," W. Schlegels sonnet on the sonnet stood sponsor for "Das Sonett," and Goethe and Tieck also reoccur in changed dress. The poems on Correggio (73), Ruisdael (75), Goethe (137), Tieck (138-39), and Novalis (141) sound especially like W. Schlegel's poems on other poets and artists.
[25] In his Geschichte des Sonettes in der deutschen Dichtung.'Leipzig, 1884. Heinrich Weltl (pp. 210-17) criticizes Loeben's sonnets most severely from the point of view of content; and as to their form he says: "Blos die Form, oder gar die blosse Form der Form ist beachtenswert." This is unquestionably a case of warping the truth in order to bring in a sort of pun.
[26] The triolett is worth quoting as a type of Loeben's prettiness: