And made me exceedingly sad,
One half with their prose so wretched,
The other with poetry bad.
Their terrible discord has scatter’d
What little senses I had,
One half with their prose so wretched,
The other with poetry bad.
But ’mongst the whole army of scribblers,
They most have stirr’d up my bile,
Who write in neither prosaic
Nor true poetical style." - Meaning and context.">
A Parody The poems of Heine; Complete], Part I, by Heinrich Heine, Translator: Edgar Alfred Bowring, London (1908)
“

Indeed they have wearied me greatly,
And made me exceedingly sad,
One half with their prose so wretched,
The other with poetry bad.
Their terrible discord has scatter’d
What little senses I had,
One half with their prose so wretched,
The other with poetry bad.
But ’mongst the whole army of scribblers,
They most have stirr’d up my bile,
Who write in neither prosaic
Nor true poetical style.

— Heinrich Heine

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Indeed they have wearied me greatly,
And made me exceedingly sad,
One half with their prose so wretched,
The other with poetry bad.
Their terrible discord has scatter’d
What little senses I had,
One half with their prose so wretched,
The other with poetry bad.
But ’mongst the whole army of scribblers,
They most have stirr’d up my bile,
Who write in neither prosaic
Nor true poetical style." in the context of "A Parody The poems of Heine; Complete], Part I, by Heinrich Heine, Translator: Edgar Alfred Bowring, London (1908)" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Quote Image
Source: Wikiquote: "Heinrich Heine" (Quotes) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Heinrich Heine

About Heinrich Heine

Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (December 13, 1797 – February 17, 1856) was a journalist, an essayist, and one of the most significant German romantic poets. Jewish by birth, he converted to Lutheran Christianity as an adult.