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But it is not so much the purpose of this paper to evaluate Loeben's creations as to locate him in the development of the Lorelei-legend, and to prove, or disprove, Heine's indebtedness to him in the case of his own poem of like name. The facts are these: In 1801 Clemens Brentano published at Bremen the first volume of his Godwi and in 1802 the second volume at the same place.

And as a prose writer, Heine's fame rests largely on his travel pictures. The points of similarity between Loeben's ballad and saga and the ballads and Märchen of Brentano, all of which Loeben knew in 1821, are wholly negligible.

It is plain that many of the lyric writers leaned on Schreiber, and the librettists could have done the same; or they could have derived their initial suggestion in more attractive form than that offered by Loeben. It seems, however, that Geibel knew Loeben's saga.

If Heine read Loeben's ballad and saga in "Urania für 1821," he could thereby have learned also of Schreiber's Rheinsagen, for, by a peculiar coincidence for our purpose, Brockhaus discusses these in the introduction in connection with a tragedy by W. Usener, entitled Die Brüder, and based upon one of Schreiber's Sagen.

The melodious singing, the golden hair and the golden comb and the use that is made of both, the irresistibly sweet sadness, the time, "Aus alten Zeiten," and the subjectivity Heine himself recites his poem these indispensable essentials in Heine's poem are not in Loeben's. Indeed as to content and of course as to merit, the two poems are far removed from each other.

But Brentano's Lorelei does not sing at all, and Loeben's just a little, "Sie singt dir hold zum Ohre," while Heine, like Schreiber, puts his heroine in the prima donna class, and has her work her charms through her singing.

As to Loeben's lyrics, they are irregular, inconsistent, and odd as to orthography, melodious and flowing in form, poor in ideas, rich in feeling that frequently sounds forced, representative of nearly all the important Germanic, Romance, and Oriental verse and strophe forms, reminiscent of his reading in many instances, and romantic as a whole, especially in their constant portrayal of longing.

Heine never mentions Loeben in his letters; nor does he refer to him in his creative works, despite the fact that he had a habit of alluding to his brothers in Apollo, even in his poems. And therefore, though it is fashionable to say that Heine knew Loeben's ballad in 1823, and though the contention is plausible, it is impossible to prove it. Why did he exclude the one by Loeben?

Poetry and individual poets receive grateful consideration, the seasons are overworked, love rarely fails and nature never, wine and the Rhine are not forgotten, and the South is poetized as the land of undying inspiration. Of their kind, and in their way, Loeben's poems are nearly perfect.

All of which is poles removed from Loeben's saga, though he knew these Märchen, for they were written when Brentano was his intimate friend. As to the importance of Loeben's saga, Wilhelm Hertz says: "Fast alle jüngeren Dichter knüpfen an seinen Erfindungen an, so besonders die zahlreichen musikdramatischen Bearbeitungen." It is extremely doubtful that this statement is correct.