es
at the end of _Norderney_ (_Reiseb._ i. vol. v. p. 101) as expressive of
his own sentiments, he seems to have held but a poor opinion of the
West-Eastern poetry that followed in the wake of Goethe's _Divan_. He
certainly never attempted anything like an imitation of this poetry, and
Oriental form appealed to him even less. In the famous, or rather
infamous, passage of the _Reisebilder_ (vol. vi. pp. 125-149), where he
makes his savage attack on Platen, he ridicules that poet's _Ghaselen_
and speaks derisively of their formal technique as "schaukelnde
Balancierkuenste" (ibid. p. 136). It is probable, however, that he judged
the _gazal_ form not so much on its own merits as on the demerits of his
adversary. It is certain at any rate that he has nowhere made use of
this form of versification.

Persian influence is not noticeable in his earlier poems;[201] his _Buch
der Lieder_ shows no distinctive traces of it. His later poems, _Neue
Gedichte_ (1844) and _Romanzero_ (1851), on the other hand, show it
unmistakably. The Persian image of the rose and the nightingale is of
frequent occurrence. In a poem on Spring (_Neue Ged._ vol. ii. p. 26) we
read:

Und mir selbst ist dann, als wuerd' ich
Eine Nachtigall und saenge
Diesen Rosen meine Liebe,
Traeumend sing' ich Wunderklaenge--.

The image recurs repeatedly in the _Neue Gedichte_, e.g. _Neuer
Fruehling_, Nos. 7, 9, 11, 20, 26; _Verschiedene_, No. 7, and in
_Romanzero_ (vol. iii.), pp. 42, 178, 253. Even in the prose-writings it
is found, e.g. _Florentinische Naechte_ (vol. iii. p. 43), _Gedanken und
Einfaelle_ (vol. xii. 309).

Again, when Heine speaks of pearls that are pierced and strung on a
silken thread ("Kluge Sterne," _Neue Ged._ vol. ii. p. 106), he is
intensely Persian; still more so when he calls Jehuda ben Halevy's
verses (_Romanz._ vol. iii. p. 136):

Perlenthraenen, die, verbunden
Durch des Reimes goldnen Faden,
Aus der Dichtkunst gueldnen Schmiede
Als ein Lied hervorgegangen.

The Persian fancy of the moth and candle-flame seems to have been in his
mind when he wrote ("Die Libelle," vol. ii. p. 288):

Knisternd verzehren die Flammen der Kerzen
Die Kaefer und ihre liebenden Herzen....

Still another Persian idea, familiar to us from a preceding chapter, is
the peacock ashamed of his ugly feet ("Unvolkommenheit," _Romanz._ vol.
iii. p. 103).

* * * * *

The Persian manner is