delit1-6, Exercise 2: Heine and Eichendorff

Model answer (check the details):

How Heine uses Romantic conventions: his Buch der Lieder (1827) is full of Romantic images (moonlight, rivers, lost love, the Loreley), but he often turns the last line against the mood, showing the sentimental pose as a pose. This ironic stance is typical of his later work.

Why he differs from Eichendorff: Eichendorff's poems and tales keep the Romantic mood sincere, with the forest, wandering and religious calm. Heine moved to Paris in 1831, wrote satire and political prose, attacked censorship and nationalism, and had his books banned in several German states. Eichendorff was a conservative Catholic civil servant, and Heine a liberal of Jewish origin.

Result: both use the same stock of images, but Eichendorff's work affirms them and Heine's questions them.