{
 "id": "matthew-arnold/heines-grave",
 "title": "Heine’s Grave",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Matthew Arnold",
 "poet_slug": "matthew-arnold",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "New Poems",
 "book_slug": "new-poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": null,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1867,
  "venue": "New Poems (1867)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/newpoems00arno"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/matthew-arnold_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27739",
   "https://archive.org/details/poemsofmatthewar00arnouoft",
   "https://archive.org/details/poeticalworksofm00arn",
   "https://archive.org/details/inmemoriamawrea00marsgoog"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-12",
  "corrections": [
   {
    "line": 191,
    "was": "Goethe, too, had been there.42",
    "now": "Goethe, too, had been there.",
    "why": "A Standard Ebooks endnote marker (<a epub:type=\"noteref\">) carried into the text by extraction; not present on the printed page.",
    "checked_against": "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27739",
    "date": "2026-08-12"
   }
  ]
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 232,
  "n_stanzas": 21,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 49,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "“Henri Heine”⁠—’tis here!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That black tombstone, the name",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Carved there⁠—no more! and the smooth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Swarded alleys, the limes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Touch’d with yellow by hot",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Summer, but under them still,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In September’s bright afternoon,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shadow, and verdure, and cool!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Trim Montmartre! the faint",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Murmur of Paris outside;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Crisp everlasting-flowers,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Yellow and black, on the graves.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Half blind, palsied, in pain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hither to come, from the streets’",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Uproar, surely not loath",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wast thou, Heine!⁠—to lie",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Quiet! to ask for closed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shutters, and darken’d room,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And cool drinks, and an eased",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Posture, and opium, no more!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hither to come, and to sleep",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Under the wings of Renown.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ah! not little, when pain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is most quelling, and man",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Easily quell’d, and the fine",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Temper of genius alive",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Quickest to ill, is the praise",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not to have yielded to pain!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "No small boast, for a weak",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Son of mankind, to the earth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pinn’d by the thunder, to rear",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His bolt-scathed front to the stars;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And, undaunted, retort",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Gainst thick-crashing, insane,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tyrannous tempests of bale,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Arrowy lightnings of soul!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Hark! through the alley resounds",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mocking laughter! A film",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Creeps o’er the sunshine; a breeze",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ruffles the warm afternoon,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Saddens my soul with its chill.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gibing of spirits in scorn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shakes every leaf of the grove,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mars the benignant repose",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of this amiable home of the dead.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Bitter spirits! ye claim",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Heine?⁠—Alas, he is yours!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Only a moment I long’d",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here in the quiet to snatch",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From such mates the outworn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Poet, and steep him in calm.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Only a moment! I knew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whose he was who is here",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Buried, I knew he was yours!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah, I knew that I saw",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Here no sepulchre built",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the laurell’d rock, o’er the blue",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Naples bay, for a sweet",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tender Virgil! no tomb",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On Ravenna sands, in the shade",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Ravenna pines, for a high",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Austere Dante! no grave",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By the Avon side, in the bright",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stratford meadows, for thee,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Shakespeare! loveliest of souls,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Peerless in radiance, in joy.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "What so harsh and malign,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Heine! distils from thy life?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Poisons the peace of thy grave?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I chide with thee not, that thy sharp",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Upbraidings often assail’d",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "England, my country; for we,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fearful and sad, for her sons,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Long since, deep in our hearts,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Echo the blame of her foes.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We, too, sigh that she flags;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We, too, say that she now,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Scarce comprehending the voice",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of her greatest, golden-mouth’d sons",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of a former age any more,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Stupidly travels her round",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of mechanic business, and lets",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Slow die out of her life",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Glory, and genius, and joy.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "So thou arraign’st her, her foe;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So we arraign her, her sons.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Yes, we arraign her! but she,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The weary Titan! with deaf",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ears, and labour-dimm’d eyes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Regarding neither to right",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Nor left, goes passively by,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Staggering on to her goal;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bearing on shoulders immense,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Atlanteän, the load,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Well-nigh not to be borne,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the too vast orb of her fate.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But was it thou⁠—I think",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Surely it was⁠—that bard",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Unnamed, who, Goethe said,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Had every other gift, but wanted love;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Love, without which the tongue",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Even of angels sounds amiss?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Charm is the glory which makes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Song of the poet divine;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Love is the fountain of charm.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "How without charm wilt thou draw,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Poet! the world to thy way?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not by the lightnings of wit!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not by the thunder of scorn!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "These to the world, too, are given;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wit it possesses, and scorn⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Charm is the poet’s alone.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hollow and dull are the great,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And artists envious, and the mob profane.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We know all this, we know!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cam’st thou from heaven, O child",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of light! but this to declare?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Alas! to help us forget",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Such barren knowledge awhile,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "God gave the poet his song.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Therefore a secret unrest",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tortured thee, brilliant and bold!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Therefore triumph itself",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tasted amiss to thy soul.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Therefore, with blood of thy foes,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Trickled in silence thine own.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Therefore the victor’s heart",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Broke on the field of his fame.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ah! as of old, from the pomp",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Italian Milan, the fair",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Flower of marble of white",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Southern palaces⁠—steps",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Border’d by statues, and walks",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Terraced, and orange bowers",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Heavy with fragrance⁠—the blond",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "German Kaiser full oft",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Long’d himself back to the fields,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rivers, and high-roof’d towns",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of his native Germany; so,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So, how often! from hot",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Paris drawing-rooms, and lamps",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Blazing, and brilliant crowds,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Starr’d and jewell’d, of men",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Famous, of women the queens",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of dazzling converse, and fumes",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of praise⁠—hot, heady fumes, to the poor brain",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That mount, that madden!⁠—how oft",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Heine’s spirit outworn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Long’d itself out of the din",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Back to the tranquil, the cool",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Far German home of his youth!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "See! in the May afternoon,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er the fresh short turf of the Hartz,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A youth, with the foot of youth,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Heine! thou climbest again.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Up, through the tall dark firs",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Warming their heads in the sun,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Chequering the grass with their shade⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Up, by the stream with its huge",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Moss-hung boulders and thin",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Musical water half-hid⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Up, o’er the rock-strewn slope,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With the sinking sun, and the air",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Chill, and the shadows now",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Long on the grey hill-side⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the stone-roof’d hut at the top.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Or, yet later, in watch",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the roof of the Brocken-tower",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou standest, gazing! to see",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The broad red sun, over field",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Forest and city and spire,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And mist-track’d stream of the wide",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Wide German land, going down",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In a bank of vapours⁠—again",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Standest! at nightfall, alone!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Or, next morning, with limbs",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rested by slumber, and heart",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Freshen’d and light with the May,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er the gracious spurs coming down",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the Lower Hartz, among oaks,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And beechen coverts, and copse",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of hazels green in whose depth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ilse, the fairy transform’d,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In a thousand water-breaks light",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Pours her petulant youth⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Climbing the rock which juts",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O’er the valley, the dizzily perch’d",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Rock! to its Iron Cross",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Once more thou cling’st; to the Cross",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Clingest! with smiles, with a sigh.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Goethe, too, had been there.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In the long-past winter he came",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the frozen Hartz, with his soul",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Passionate, eager, his youth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All in ferment;⁠—but he",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Destined to work and to live",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Left it, and thou, alas!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Only to laugh and to die.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But something prompts me: Not thus",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Take leave of Heine, not thus",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Speak the last word at his grave!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Not in pity and not",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With half censure⁠—with awe",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Hail, as it passes from earth",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Scattering lightnings, that soul!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The spirit of the world,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Beholding the absurdity of men⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their vaunts, their feats⁠—let a sardonic smile",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For one short moment wander o’er his lips.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That smile was Heine!⁠—for its earthly hour",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The strange guest sparkled; now ’tis pass’d away.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "That was Heine! and we,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Myriads who live, who have lived,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "What are we all, but a mood,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A single mood, of the life",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the Being in whom we exist,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who alone is all things in one.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Spirit, who fillest us all!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Spirit, who utterest in each",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "New-coming son of mankind",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Such of thy thoughts as thou wilt!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O thou, one of whose moods,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Bitter and strange, was the life",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Heine⁠—his strange, alas!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His bitter life⁠—may a life",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Other and milder be mine!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May’st thou a mood more serene,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Happier, have utter’d in mine!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "May’st thou the rapture of peace",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Deep have embreathed at its core;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Made it a ray of thy thought!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Made it a beat of thy joy!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}