63. Of Heine's poems this was the favorite of Lenau. Absolute unity of form and content: ceaseless change in ceaseless monotony.
7. WO SIND SIE HIN? Whither are they gone?
64.—5. DAS, without any definite antecedent.
65. The inscription on Heine's grave in Paris. Compare with it Robert Louis Stevenson's Requiem.
5. WO = irgendwo, somewhere.
11. TOTENLAMPEN, lamps burned in the vaults in honor of the dead.
PLATEN
August Graf von Platen-Hallermünde was born in Ansbach, Bavaria, October 24, 1796, and died near Syracuse, Sicily, December 5, 1835. The son of a noble family, Platen is, barring his Weltschmerz (world weariness, compare Lenau) and the fact that he spent a good part of his life in foreign lands, the exact opposite of Heine. While Heine affects a certain carelessness of rhyme and rhythm and diction, Platen observes a studied elegance. His verse form is faultless as if chiselled in marble, his rhymes the most careful and pure. His ballads have a stately majesty of rhythm that reflects the inherent nobility of the poet. On the whole, his stanzas are characterized by a full and sonorous ring, although effects of delicate grace are not wanting (67). Platen is one of the greatest masters of form in German literature and is unrivalled as a master of the sonnet.
66. ALARICH (Alaric), the great leader of the Goths, having conquered Rome, succumbed to a fever when 34 years old (410 A.D.), and was buried by his troops near Cosenza (Cosentia) in the river Busento. Notice the stately dignity of the long trochaic line without any marked caesural pause. Any attempt to introduce the latter spoils the majestic ring of the verse.
1. LISPELN, best rendered, are lisped, or resound faintly.