And as to the pronounced similarity of form, we must
remember that Heine was here employing his favorite measure, while
Loeben was almost the equal of Ruckert in regard to the number of
verse and strophe forms he effectively and easily controlled. In
short, striking similarity in content is lacking, and as to the same
sort of similarity in form to this but little if any significance can
be attached.
And if the internal evidence is thin, the external is invisible,
except for the fact that Loeben's ballad was published by Brockhaus,
whom Heine knew by correspondence. But between the years 1818 and
1847, Heine never published anything in _Urania_,[57] which was used
by so many of his contemporaries. Heine and Loeben never knew each
other personally, and between the years 1821 and 1823 they were never
regionally close together.[58] 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.[59]
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.
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