Book of Songs, Lyrical Intermezzo as a Poetic Embodiment of the Human Need for Connection

There must be a very special secret behind the way this short, two-stanza poem comprised of only eight lines has become one of the most haunting and memorable works in the history of the world poetry. At first sight, it might seem to be a mere observation of an idle yet perspicacious mind on the nature and climate of the East and the North, but after a closer look new philosophical depths open and mesmerize the reader:

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• A pine is standing lonely
• In the North on a bare plateau.
• He sleeps; a bright white blanket
• Enshrouds him in ice and snow
• He's dreaming of a palm tree
• Far away in the Eastern land
• Lonely and silently mourning

On a sunburnt rocky strand (Heine 62).The poem with its finely calibrated, minimalistic yet telling two-stanza structure and bright, multi-layered symbols is a poetic representation of the eternal human longing for communication with the different and the unattainable especially vigorously voiced by the Romanticists.

The structure of the poem perfectly mirrors the inner development of the semantics. The first four-line stanza is devoted to the image of the pine tree and the extremely cold conditions, it has to endure, while the second four-line stanza tells the reader of a palm and the burning hot landscape that surrounds it. The two stanzas stand in sharp contrast, as the North and the East should, yet they are united by the image of a pine tree which sleeps and dreams of the palm. So, the second stanza seems to carry the reader over to the East, and yet, knowing that it is only a dream, a product of imagination, the reader stays anchored in the North where the dreaming pine tree grows. In such a way, in only eight lines Heine creates two polar, opposite worlds which are sharply contrasted and at the same time co-exist in a complex interconnectedness of reality and a dream. The structure of this poem tells us that the North and the East are different, but this difference is only a dream, after a closer look they appear to have many things in common - universal human fear of loneliness, the gift of imagination and longing for the connection.

The two key images of the poem - the pine and the palm seem to symbolize two cultures, the European North and the Oriental East. Seen from this perspective, the poem might be telling the readers about the Romantic fascination with the exotic Orient and its mystical cultures. The European civilization has had to endure some very uncomfortable climate, which might stand for the political and social turmoil, but now it is in a state of quite comfortable, yet not too productive hibernation - wrapped in "a bright white blanket" of "ice and snow" (Heine 62). The "plateau" on which the pine is growing suggests the high status of the Western culture, its certain self-complacency. Yet, it is longing for something radically different to re-vitalize and re-energize it, "the Eastern land" with its "sunburnt rocky strand" (Heine 62). But, the Eastern culture, "lonely and silently mourning" (Heine 62), is going through a phase of melancholic nostalgia of the splendid bygone days and does not seem to be open for a dialogue. Yet, as it seems, the creation of Heine's amazing poem is a testament itself to the possibility of fruitful and productive intercultural communication inspired both by the differences (the North versus the East) and similarities (equal loneliness and necessity to fight the harsh conditions).

Another interpretation is suggested by the usage of gender attribution and personal pronouns: in Heine's original and the translations as well the pine tree is male, while the palm tree is female. This brings into focus another view of a poem as a romantic love story - an unrequited love of a man (the pine) for a woman (the palm) who are too different to be together. The pine is standing lonely on a plateau, which points to a person of high standing that has achieved some stable and comfortable position in life. Yet, he feels that some essential part of his life is missing - it is the feminine beginning, completely different in its essence from the male stoicism of a pine. As the reader is never told about the palm's feelings towards the pine, the reader might surmise the palm is oblivious of the pine's longing which makes the poem take on an even more melancholic shade than Shakespeare's play of Romeo and Juliet: if the two young lovers had a chance to communicate and get to know each other better, the two characters in Heine's poem do not even have this opportunity due to their insurmountable differences - whether of culture, origin or background. Yet, the palm is "silently mourning" (Heine 62) for some unknown reason, which might give the pine hope for some possibility of future mutuality. In this highly poetic metaphoric way, Heine manages to convey the dramatic yet hopeful uncertainty of life with its eternal promise which is tragically very rarely destined to be fulfilled.

The lack of communication and the profound need to overcome the isolation constitute the underlying immensely powerful emotional appeal of the poem. This appeal is what takes the reader to another level of interpretation - the universal one, turning the poem into a philosophical meditation over the all-human need for connection, for surmounting the differences whatever they are and taking apart the proverbial walls which, to use Robert Frost's metaphor, human beings build between themselves. The lonesome pine standing on a cold rock and wrapped in a blanket of ice and snow symbolizes a mature, self-assured, independent and settled individual with fully-formed views on life. He has fought the harsh conditions for his place under the sun and has earned his right to live comparatively comfortably. Yet, he feels that he lacks something - a connection with other individuals. Even if he does not want to recognize it, this longing creeps into his dreams. The palm embodies this other individual, a person with different life experience and values, who is lonesome and sad in her solitude too. Even if they have no chance to communicate, their mutual need for connection is what unites them.

Thus, Heine's short poem is, in reality, a deep well of meanings created through the poet's ingenious usage of the two symbols - the pine and the palm. The pine's dream of the palm tree can be decoded at least in three key dimensions - the intercultural one, the interpersonal one and the intrapersonal one. But all of them are united by one main idea - the human essence is the need for connection, the longing for something new and different, the hope without hope.

Work Cited

Heine, Heinrich, and Hal Draper. "Book of Songs, Lyrical Intermezzo, 33." The Complete Poems of Heinrich Heine: A Modern English Version, Cambridge, MA: Suhrkamp/Insel Publishers Boston, Inc., 1982, p. 62.