Thursday, February 18, 2010

Heinrich Heine

47 comments:

  1. I am a person who loves romanticism. Something I loathe about certain individuals is that when they discuss romance they immediatly begin to talk about how cute them and their random partner is as a couple. Mr. Heine is nothing like that whatsoever. This short poem is so incredibly depressing. Though I have thankfully experienced this what he speaks of, it sounds awful. Homee does not focus on such minute details such as sexual attraction but rather on how it is human nature to lie to oneself. I love this guy (no romance pun intended).

    ReplyDelete
  2. A Pine is Standing Lonely:
    This poem especially I felt, followed the common themes of loneliness, and darkness, and individualism in romantic poetry. The poet describes this tree using pathetic fallacy to give the tree human feelings,to have a dream of another tree just as miserable as itself. The imagery in this poem creats a solemn tone and just is depressing to the reader. Despite this, I enjoyed this poem. I liked the diction used by the poet. The poem I feel is powerful with emotion and imagery. It is a great but depressign poem.

    ReplyDelete
  3. A Pine is Standing Lonely
    This poem is a good example of romantic poetry because it uses an element of nature, specifically, a pine tree, to convey a human emotion. The poem is composed in two stanzas, which form two distinct sections of the poem that together, evoke a feeling of isolation and melancholy. The first stanza shows the reader that the person who is being represented by the pine tree is not only physically alone, but mentally alone as well. Heine does this by describing the tree’s surroundings, which are white and untouched by any living thing, and brings the isolation to a deeper and more extreme level. The second stanza, although telling of another place and tree, furthers the initial aloneness established in the first stanza because of the fact that the tree can only dream of this place and even if there is a tree that is similarly lonely somewhere else, they cannot overcome the hurdles (such as being rooted to the ground) that separate them.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Megan Mattson -
    Heinrich Heine’s “[A Young Man Loves a Maiden]” instills sadness in his audience. The story of a young man who loves someone, only for her to marry out of spite, shows regret that the subject wasn’t given more attention. The audience feels bad for the young man, relating with the needs of that individual, and how he needed freedom in expression of his love. With just this simple tale with a sorrowful attitude, Heine gets his audience to realize what each individual needs. I like this simple connotation of a story we can all relate to, showing that love and longing anyone can have are just need for a freer individual.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  6. A Pine is Standing Lonely:
    In this poem, Romanticists' fixation on scenery and their emphasis on the individual fuse together. Each of the short stanzas describes a setting and an individual, both portraying the same plight. The pine tree and the palm tree each long to be something and somewhere they are not, similar to humans' desire for more than they have. The brevity of this piece works to its advantage, although a couple more stanzas fleshing out the descriptions of the scenes would be nice. By choosing not to be wordy or lengthy in getting his point across, Heine makes this poem accessible and leaves the reader to ponder his musings.

    (Quan=Katie)

    ReplyDelete
  7. "[A Pine Is Standing Lonely]"

    Loneliness can directly relate to Romanticism, in that the stereotypical mindset of Romanticism is either love or love lost. In this poem, A Pine Is Standing Lonely, the idea would be love lost, due to the fact that Heine depicts an object longing for another. However, a second relation to Romanticism exists in this poem. When Heine personifies a pine tree, he shows an interest in nature and the natural ways of life, a key concept to Romanticism as a whole. A third relation to Romanticism also exists, though in a more obscure, metaphorical sense—the pine tree represents human emotion in a more natural sense, demonstrating a typical human feeling. This is not necessarily, then, a poem that will evoke a strong emotional reaction. Rather, it is, quite simply, a charming little story.

    --
    Calvin Ling

    ReplyDelete
  8. "[A Young Man Loves a Woman]"

    This is not a stereotypically romantic poem, but is certainly more realistic. Instead of painting a picture of a girl and a boy, in love, together forever, he paints a picture of heart break. Which is, naturally, pretty sad to read, particularly when you consider how frequently this story plays out. It makes me wonder how many people marry out of spite for others rather than marrying for love. And, along the same lines, how many people settle for second best when it comes to love. I suppose it must happen rather frequently which is pretty sad to imagine.

    ReplyDelete
  9. A pine is Standing Lonely
    This poem fits with classic Romanticism in its ability to portray both loneliness and depression. It instills a feeling of lost love, and a small bit of brokenness in what the writer is portraying. This poem is filled with metaphors in the since that the pine portrays a person who has lost the heat of their loved one. this story doesn't make me feel immediately sad for at first I only see the tree, alone. But then I change the view to the tree being a person and I can feel the pain.

    -Kat J.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I also did A Young Man Loves A Woman

    This poem also reads of heart break and pain. The boy strives for a girl who will not look at him and will not give him a chance. I feel this does fit with romantic poems, there is always some form of sadness in a true romantic poem in my opinion. Though this poem does not end in happiness it does tell a true story. The imagery helps paint a picture as Jordan says and I can almost feel the pain the boys in.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Cameron Thum
    "A Pine is Standing Lonely"

    "A Pine is Standing Lonely" is one of the shorter Romantic poems I have read, and I feel that this shortness, as well as the simple rhyme scheme, greatly contribute to the feelings of isolation and longing induced by this poem. All that is needed to be said to convey the tone is said in these few lines, and is a testament to the poets concise word choice. The poem is Romantic, not only because of the feelings of solitude and isolation that it induces, yet also because of how it uses traits of nature to describe the human's condition. Furthermore, the poet's choice of words greatly contributes to the tone of the poem. By using words such as "lonely," "bare," and "silently mourning" the the poet creates a feeling of cold desperation. The author thent akes these already established feelings and adds a sense of longing between the two "trees" (a great example of how he uses natural objects to describe humans) by conveying the great distance between the two (one is East, one is North, "far away" from each other).

    ReplyDelete
  12. "A Pine is Standing Lonely"

    Desire for something you cannot obtain is a common theme in Romanticism poems, including this one is. This distance from what the subject yearns for can either be short or far. In this case, the yearning distance is "Far away in the Eastern land".The author sets the Pine on "a bare plateau" to emphasize his solitary state. The tree is asleep, representing the dormant state that it feels to be alone. Both the snow and the sand are isolating factors between the two subjects. The author refers to the Palm tree as "lonely and silently mourning" to re-emphasize the Pine tree's unhappiness as well by using similar diction.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I can not tell if the title of the poem, "A Pine is Standing Lonely" was specifically decided upon as the title, or merely used because it is the first line of the poem, in either case it summarizes the first half of the poem. The first stanza descrives the pine tree, cold and lonely somewhere in the wintery north, the second stanza is about the most opposite situation possible, a palm as opposed to a pine, sitting in the hot summer of the east. It is short, the entire poem is focused upon the juxtaposition of these two opposites, and yet connected together. The first line of the secondstanza descrobes the pine as dreaming of the palm, and both are lonelyy. The description of two unhappy outsiders, written into beautiful but lonely scenes, has a bit of a star-crossed lovers feel to it as though they are searching for and dreaming of companionship from one another, though the pathetic fallacy does not necessarily have to represent lovers. Either way, Heine successfully creates a peaceful and melancholic feel to the poem through his descriptions of the settings, both desolate and yet piercingly beautiful scenes. This poem feels very romantic to me, melancholy being the pervasive feeling of the poem and everything, while sad, feels very idyllic and is all completely natural showing the romantic period's focus on all that is uncorrupted by humans.

    ReplyDelete
  14. "A Young Man Loves a Maiden" tells the age-old story of someone loving someone who doesn't love them back. In this piece, however, not only does this happen to one person, but it happens to two. Heine's usage of short words and simple rhymes make the poem simple to understand, which is ideal because of its subject. Love is generally complex, and being able to read a Romantic poem easily helps with getting its point across. The syntax of the poem, however, is creative. It enables the use of rhyme, which is shown in the first stanza, with "But she another prefers" rhyming with "And ties the knot with her." Because this poem is about heartbreak and the reality of it, it is not as unrealistic as some other Romantic poems. It is more similar to what people write about today, because modern writers know that true love is hard to find.

    ReplyDelete
  15. A Pine Is Standing Lonely
    This poem is very romantic because it illustrates the scene of two lovers in different circumstances separated, but longing for each other. It does so in a keen way, describing the difference of situations by referencing the background and landscape that the lovers endure. The poem uses a metaphor that the two lovers are two different types of trees and by doing so he connects them to the earth, in this case literally, so that they can be compared in a more simplified manner. Often times things such as trees and things most greatly attached to the earth are thought of as a simple, pure, and yet still correct way of existence, this allows the author to throw away all the complex thoughts and emotions of the two lovers and have the reader only perceive the lovers’ crave for the other. The strong male pine tree is enduring a snowstorm in the west, while the feminine palm tree suffers from a volcano in the east. The underlying message here is that the lovers are experiencing great desperation because they are not able to satisfy their urge to go to the other. Such thoughts are exaggerated by the author because he not only uses the background as a means of separating the lovers, but also to show the pain of the extremes they are facing, this makes for an even more vivid display of the emotion of desperation because trees cannot move neither towards each other nor away from the plaguing threats that they face separately.

    ReplyDelete
  16. "[A Pine is Standing Lonely]" uses nature to reflect human moods, utilizing a romantic theme. This poem does reflect the loneliness through the simplicity of the rhyme and the length of the pome, the limited space allows only for the meek loneliness to distribute its self within the poem. At the end of each line the words directly relate back to loneliness and distance. This technique leaves emphases on the loneliness of the pine and the importance of the loneliness. The simplicity created a somber depressed tone.

    ReplyDelete
  17. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  18. [A Pine Is Standing Lonely]:
    The poem's words are so simple that is seems like the author does not want to cover up the tree's loneliness with fancy, elaborate words. He says it how it is, with nothing added. The reader can imagine a lone pine on rough and rocky land, and then a palm tree on a warm beach down south, nestled in the sand. By referring to the pine as a person with dreams and feelings, wanting to go south instead of staying in its solitary, cold, uncertain world, Heine is speaking of a person, alone and without anything to do, dreaming of the one person that can make his/her life better. The poem's sad words evoke pity for the pine tree's sad existence. What makes it even sadder is the fact that the pine must stay where it is, it can only dream for it does not have legs of its own, using personification to rouse sympathy in Heine's audience.

    ReplyDelete
  19. “[A Young Man Loves a Maiden]” Heinrich’s poem is heat breaking. It speaks of a love unfulfilled. This poem hits close to home because most people experience the pain of loving someone and them not feeling the same. Henrich says the story is “forever new” meaning that it repeats over and over again and each time you feel the same reaction to this event. It “breaks the heart in two.” The experience is agony that can only be described as a heart that has been broken. The syntax of the poem is unlike other romantic poems. It is more modern. Its diction is not complicated it is very straightforward the poem is the telling of a story. A story of love and the pains it brings.

    ReplyDelete
  20. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  21. A young man loves a maiden-
    This poem, though short, revolves around realism. Hein takes a very complicated situation and puts the poem into three stanzas with a total of twelve lines. By writing the poem this way he makes the situation seem just as equally uncomplicated as it is complicated. He uses the rejection of the woman throughout the entire poem to show the reader the great deal of sadness that is hiding behind his words. In the last Stanza when Hein says, "It is an old, old story, yet still forever new" he is saying that even though this has happened numerous times, the pain caused is still strong.

    ReplyDelete
  22. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  23. The imagination, individuality, and nature in Heinrich Heine’s “[A Pine Is Standing Lonely]” prove it to be a good example of Romanticism. Heine uses pathetic fallacy when he imagines a pine tree sitting in the winter thinking of how warm a palm tree would be. I liked how Heine made the tree like a person instead of, like most of the other poets, having people observe nature. This poem focus on the feeling of the tree, or person it represented, and what it is thinking. Though many people could find this poem depressing, I find it slightly cheerful with a message I wish I could do more often. Though the pine tree is stuck in the snow, it imagines a better place and focuses on the hope that a warm spring will come soon.

    ReplyDelete
  24. This poem [A young man loves a maiden], is my favorite romantic poem because of the way Heine uses simple syntax to get the point across. His point is: everyone experiences heartbreak but that doesn't mean that heartbreak and love aren't personal. I think this is a key concept of romanticism; this focus on the individual but also the focus on general emotions. The way Heine uses small words and simple ideas allows the poem to understood by anybody. Even if you haven't experienced the certain heartbreak he writes about, you still feel for the young man. Heine is right, heartbreak is an old story and it happens to anyone and everyone but that doesn't mean that people can dismiss the idea. Heartbreak will always be around.

    ReplyDelete
  25. "A Pine is Standing Lonely"

    This poem's use of personification, giving the trees human emotions, fits the poem in the romantic style of the period. The pine tree (the "lonely," standing male) and the palm tree (the "languishing" female) are meant to represent two different people who are in love, surrounded by completely different environments. The pine tree, covered "in folds of white" snow, stands with quiet strength while the palm tree that he "dreams []" of is far away on a "burning bank of sand," filled with silent longing. The two lovers are thinking of one another, and are "lonely" without each other.

    Heine also uses imagery in the poem. The reader can picture both the pine tree and the palm tree. The pine tree is said to be "in the north, on a barren height," allowing the reader to picture the tree covered in snow, alone on a hill without even a bush or another tree to keep it company. The palm tree is described as being on a "burning bank of sand," which contrasts starkly with the location of the pine tree, meaning that the locations of the two trees are different, and the circumstances of nature that both encounter are different. The pine tree is rooted firmly on the hill, while the palm tree may be more tentatively rooted in the soft sand. Nature plays a pivotal role in this poem in both description of the trees and their limiting factors.

    The poem i meant to inspire sadness for the unfulfilled love in the reader, and it does. Heine describes and conveys the trees' longing of one another so well that the reader wishes for them to be together, but knows that this can never happen.
    Katie Jakovich

    ReplyDelete
  26. A Pine Is Standing Lonely – Heinrich Heine

    Heine utilizes the metaphor of a pine tree to examine a man’s longing for love that he may have either lost, or have never had. The pine tree is “dreaming of a palm tree.” This palm tree personifies a more glamorous person, who is admired by the “pine”. This palm tree is also mourning, though, because it too lacks the glory of true love. The fact that the two trees are inherently different and stationary in their environments shows the impossibility of the love between them.

    ReplyDelete
  27. A Pine Is Standing Lonely
    Bradley Zeis

    In this poem, Heine uses the metaphor of trees in place of humans. This metaphor ties in the Romantic themes of nature and individualism. A tree stands on its own with no help from the other "trees" that surround it, much like an individual cut off from the world. The lonely and miserable pine tree longs for the its love, the tropical, exotic pine tree, which symbolizes the futility of human goals and dreams. Just like most human dreams, the pine tree's dream won't come true and it will never be graced with the presence of the palm tree.

    ReplyDelete
  28. A Pine is Standing Lonely is a poem all about longing and love. The pine, who is in a cold forest, dreams of a love. The love, a palm tree, is separated from the pine by an expanse of land. Like in Heine's other poem, the use of short phrases and words shows the idea of lost love. Heine is also comparing higher society to lower. The palm tree is rich in glamour and exoticness but of not have the simple happiness that the pine does. The pine tree dreams of the palm but does not realize that "he" is better off. Heine again uses personification to show human emotion through nature.

    ReplyDelete
  29. [A pine is standing lonely]

    Heine’s poem shows obvious concepts of Romanticism. The idea that the pine tree is lonely and possibly vengeful personifies it and draws a connection to human emotions. The tree’s feelings of darkness and sadness are also a very common theme in Romantic poetry and literature. The poem is split into two halves, each conveying a different type of solitude. The first, a pine tree surrounded with ice and snow the second a palm tree in the vast dry desert. This focus and interest in nature and scenery were also a very prominent part of Romanticism and in this case uses imagery to emphasize the sad and lonely emotion of the poem. The way Heine writes about the palm and the pine tree almost creates them as star crossed lovers. Both lonely and longing, but miles apart, which adds another layer of the Romantic theme of love lost. At the same time, the poem is so brief that it is hard to become emotionally involved which creates an almost witty feel so that it is almost like reading a fairytale.

    -Ronja B

    ReplyDelete
  30. In Heinrich Heine's "A Pine Is Standing Lonely," Romanticism is clearly present due to the use of Nature metaphors. The lonely pine tree is craving a love who is miles away. There is no way he can reach her, despite his desperation. The tone is this poem is one of hopelessness and despair, due to the love that the subject cannot attain. Heine also gives the pine tree human emotions, which is another concept of Romanticism. "A Pine Is Standing Lonely" is heavily focused on scenery and imagery in Nature, as well, using powerful diction to describe the solitude being experienced by the pine tree.

    Mia Pfluger, 8th period

    ReplyDelete
  31. Heine’s characterization of humanity in “A Pine Is Standing Lonely” is a striking image which captivates human loss. The pine tree is not actually a pine tree, but representative of a human, pining for a lost love. Like lost love leaves one stranded, the pine itself is abandoned, enclosed by shields of ice and snow. Though there is a glimmer of hope in the situation, the “palm tree far away,” even this is not purely promising, for this tree is also “silently mourning.” Heine’s poem captures the pain of lost love and the scars it leaves behind. Though many might find the poem dismal, I find there is something beautiful in the tragic.

    ReplyDelete
  32. No matter the rendering, “A Pine is Standing Lonely” by Heinrich Heine, is unequivocally Romantic. Heine personifies a pine tree, isolated in lonely in the frigid North. There is hope of resolution when the pine tree, “dreams of a palm-tree”. However, their states are matched in the second stanza when the palm tree reveals to be similarly lonely and droops in the hot climate of the East. These isolated trees encompass the detached nature of those yearning for love. This poem confronts the issue of individualism as well as providing strong natural imagery which are the characteristics that make it a Romantic piece.

    ReplyDelete
  33. [A Pine is Standing Lonely]
    Heine uses this poem to demonstrate the beauty and power nature has, nature's power and inability to be controlled were common Romantic themes. Even the pine in the north can wonder at the palm tree in the east. No matter that the trees are on different sides of the planet, they are still deeply attached. To give the reader a better sense of the interconnectedness of nature, Heine uses anthropomorphism to make the different trees "lonely and silently mourning" (7). This allows the reader to compare the tree's feelings with their own, and then feel that they have a greater understanding of nature's beauty and power, and also how it is inescapable by other parts of nature, no matter how far away or detached they may seem. I enjoyed this poem, especially how it was able to convey just as much as many of the longer and more complicated poems in the book, yet was much more straightforward and simple.

    ReplyDelete
  34. A Pine is Standing Lonely:

    The poem itself feels as though it is the dying thoughts of a tree as it was hewn to the ground. The poem is undoubtedly forlorn, showing it is not only willows that weep, but that each tree, and by extension, every living thing in nature is subject to emotion. Not bringing into question how a pine tree on a mountain would have any knowledge of palm trees and deserts, Heine's lone pine epitomizes and transcends the baseness of thought. The pine ponders, or dreams of a palm. Whether the pine merely covets the warmth of the palm, or sympathizes with another kindred soul suffering from the cruelty of loneliness. Thus the pine is the jealous beggar and the concerned philanthrope, who steals and heals in the same thought.
    In response:

    Torn early from mother and kindred,
    Wind kissed, soaring over what was home,
    Dropped by the sparrow of the field,
    To rest alone on the windswept plain,
    Forgotten, isolated, nothing left but dreams,
    Of a time before the flight and the fall,
    And of the company of another lonely tree.

    ReplyDelete
  35. I like this poem because it made me laugh. Tree love; ha ha. But besides that, it is a great example of Romantic poetry because, most simply, it is about what a tree wants. Trees don't have wants. Trees are trees. But, in the Romantic era, poets such as Heine took inanimate objects, often ones in nature (like this lone pine tree) and gave them feelings, ideas, wants, and needs, in effect making this a poem about two people stuck on different sides of the world, longing for each other. This all required a bit of imagination, but thinking outside the box was something Romantic poets did very well. This poem, apparently, was written as a song (and of course in German), so its structure is only a simple rhyme scheme. The personification of the tree, as well as the somewhat lyrical language ("nodding with whitest cover") instead of "covered in snow") are reasons why this is a Romantic poem.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Heinrich Heine - [A Pine is Standing Lonely]

    In Heinrich Heine’s “[A Pine is Standing Lonely],” romanticism’s interest in nature and emphasis on personal need are exemplified in both its subject matter and its language. Heine attemps to humanize trees, placing a pine tree and a palm tree in the positions of lost lovers, forever longing but never realizing their dreams. Both trees are sad in their states, the pine tree “standing lonely in the north on a bare plateau” and the palm tree “on a sunburnt rocky strand,” no matter how different they are. Through Heine’s use of the word “dreaming” and language normally attached to human lust, he attempts to place human lust in a non-human form to prove love’s universality. In the end, I personally think he succeeds in evoking a sense of universal longing and love.

    ReplyDelete
  37. A Pine Standing Lonely

    Heine's poem "A Pine Standing Lonely" makes the reader feel as empty as the space between the two loving trees. This poem is short, clean, and simple, yet manages to evoke such a strong emotion in the reader without using confusing language. One of the things that stuck out to me was the blatant use of contrast. In the first stanza, Heine describes the "bright, white blanket" of "ice and snow." In the following stanza, the corresponding tree is described as "sunburnt." This juxtaposition of the subjects and their descriptions highlighted the isolation of the trees. Also, in Romanticism, natural objects were often used. This was somewhat of a revolutionary idea, because earlier poetry used human subjects to create a more concrete mood. However, this poem by Hiene shows that using inanimate objects can create just as much, if not more feeling as a human subject.

    ReplyDelete
  38. A Pine is Standing Lonely

    This poem is a great example of romanticism, for it uses trees and other natural features as a metaphor.

    The pine exemplifies the human experience, or at least our individual view of it. People are ultimately alone with their own thoughts much like the pine "on a bare plateau". With the pine being covered in "a bright white blanket", one imagines that winter is upon the Earth. Everything else like the bears and birds are gone, so the pine tree is alone among the still landscape. However, even alone, the pine still stands tall, showing and emphasizing the strength of the human spirit.

    The palm tree in the poem represents the ideal person. Palm trees usually occur in tropical regions, with lots of trees, animals, and people. The palm tree is not lonely, it has many others with which it can share it's life. The pine tree, however hard it tries, can never become a palm tree.

    I have noticed that this poem has an easy to find literal meaning, but provokes lots of thought of the metaphorical meaning. The tree, alone by itself, dreams of being a palm tree and it longs for something in the barren landscape. The poem is sad, because it causes me to feel that I, like the tree, am just an island in the sea of life. The palm tree is an ideal, completely unreachable.

    Chris Wang (Period 5)

    ReplyDelete
  39. A Pine is Standing Lonely
    I like the way that Heine personifies the palm tree, using words like, "dreaming", "sleeps", and "standing". This falls under the concept of both the increasing interest in nature and the association of human moods with the moods of nature. While the pine tree and palm tree are both literally items in nature, the metaphorical desires of the pine tree also show that it is natural to want what you can't have. The diction used near the end also suggests that the palm tree is unhappy, because of the word "mourning". I liked the simplicity and rhyme of this poem, but the actual content was a little saddening.

    ReplyDelete
  40. In the poem "A Pine is standing lonely", Heine describes his longing for a more prolific and spontaneous life through the use of natural imagery. In the first stanza, Heine complains of a world of loneliness, boredom, and uniformity. "A pine is standing lonely/In the North on a bare plateau" is Heine's first step in his defection to a more spontaneous life style. It's his ever growing affection and envy for "a palm tree/Far away in the Eastern land" that gives away his desires for a different life. Heine most likely used Palm trees because they are closely related to a tropical paradise where one can essentially "kick back and relax". This was one of the few poems that I could relate to, because I live so far away from Austin, it limits me to do anything fun with anybody in town.
    Stephen Pinon

    ReplyDelete
  41. In Heine's "A Pine is Standing Lonely", the poem displays a significant emphasis on nature, and personifies a pine with emotions that a human might feel. The pine is "lonely", "[sleeping]", and has a blanket, albeit made of snow (a clear oxymoron). The pine also dreams of another tree, a pine tree, which is suffering a similar lonely fate in an opposite clime.

    Heine uses rhyme to create a sense of flow and movement, but he also carefully chooses his words to convey an emotion. In the first stanza, to reflect the bite of ice, snow, and loneliness, he uses a lot of hard consonants, a lot of "s" sounds, e.g. sleeps, wraps ice, snow, all to emphasize the desolation of the Pine. In the second stanza, Heine uses only 4 S's, 2 of them from the same word used consecutively. He uses a little alliteration when he places the words "land/languishes, lonely..." together. Heine uses more deep, low pitched sounds to draw a parallel between the palm tree's loneliness and climate with the climate and loneliness of the Pine tree. The Pine tree is in a cold environment, and its stanza has harsh sounds, while the Palm tree is in a warmer environment, and so the stanza uses softer sounds.

    Emotionally, I feel saddened and empathetic, even though the subject is only a tree, and not human. In this way,Heine did a good job of bringing out human traits while focusing on nature.

    ReplyDelete
  42. This is Avery Herman's mother (Lynn Blais) posting on both "A Pine is Standing Lonely" and "A Young Man Loves a Maiden." These poems convey remarkably complex images and ideas in short, straightforward prose. In A Young Man Loves a Maiden, Heine celebrates and decries the influence of the natural world on individuals -- in this case the seeming randomness of life caused by natural forces and emotions that humans cannot control. He makes clear that this tragedy is nature's doing by observing that "it is an old, old, story, yet still forever new." In "A Pine is Standing Lonely," the most obviously romantic aspect of this poem is the personification of the pine -- he is standing lonely, he sleeps, he dreams. In his dreams, the pine evokes another tree, also standing lonely and, it is implied, dreaming of the lonely pine. The short poem successfully paints two different, compelling, natural landscapes. And the competing loneliness and longing of the trees mirrors "A Young Man Loves a Maiden" -- individuals with deeply felt needs that long for something other than what they have. Both poems convey the disorganized, uncivilized essence of nature and of human nature.

    ReplyDelete
  43. A Pine is Standing Lonely

    I specifically like this poem because it uses vivd personification of the palm tree to envoke emotion of the reader. It also creates a sense of the nautre found in all humans, however we are still standing lonely because we are individual. And individual conceptions of different environments will show through us all.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Ashley Marie's mother Cynthia
    A Young Man Loves A Maiden was my favorite of these for both good and bad and happy and sad reasons. Good is the simple honesty of strong feelings usually “felt by the young” without the list of reasons life gives to those of us with age to hold back Bad is the poetic unfairness of loving someone strongly and so genuinely – yet it is not reciprocated. Happy is the moment of feeling vindicated – right after she marries but has not fully awakened herself to her reasons and sad is the tragic truth behind the pitiful predictability of the situation. I like the simple illustration of this simple story – how all of the reasons that would be told to make sense of the individual actions are boiled-down to the same Old-New Story.

    ReplyDelete
  45. "A Young Man Loves a Maiden"
    Heinrich Heine’s “A Young Man Loves a Maiden,” does not seem to be quite as realistic as some of the other Romantic poem. However, the use of rhyme and syntax gives the poem a flow and emphasizes certain lines in the poem. To me, the most melancholy lines are “Yet still forever new/It breaks the heart in two” (Heine). The use of the rhyme scheme is perfect for these two lines, because as a reader, I can almost imagine and hear the sound of the broken hearts. The long vowel sounds at the end seems elongate the sound of a mournful howl.

    ReplyDelete
  46. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete