James Walter Ferrier and John George Robertson

Summary

James Walter Ferrier and John George Robertson 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 13… (1911)

In the case of no other of the greater German poets is it so hard to arrive at a final judgment as in that of Heinrich Heine. In his Buch der Lieder he unquestionably struck a new lyric note, not merely for Germany but for Europe. No singer before him had been so daring in the use of nature-symbolism as he, none had given such concrete and plastic expression to the spiritual forces of heart and soul; in this respect Heine was clearly the descendant of the Hebrew poets of the Old Testament.
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James Walter Ferrier and John George Robertson 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 13… (1911)

The prose writings of his French period mark, together with Börne’s Briefe aus Paris, the beginning of a new era in German journalism and a healthy revolt against the unwieldly prose of the Romantic period. Above all things, Heine was great as a wit and a satirist. His lyric may not be able to assert itself beside that of the very greatest German singers, but as a satirist he had powers of the highest order. He combined the holy zeal and passionate earnestness of the “soldier of humanity” with the withering scorn and ineradicable sense of justice common to the leaders of the Jewish race.
Source: Wikisource

James Walter Ferrier and John George Robertson 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 13… (1911)

Thus his fame has always stood higher in England and France than in Germany itself, where his lyric method, his self-consciousness, his cynicism in season and out of season, were little in harmony with the literary traditions. As far, indeed, as the development of the German lyric is concerned, Heine’s influence has been of questionable value. But he introduced at least one new and refreshing element into German poetry with his lyrics of the North Sea; no other German poet has felt and expressed so well as Heine the charm of sea and coast.
Source: Wikisource

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