In the year 1828 Therese Heine was engaged and married to a Dr. Adolf Halle. Among Heine's posthumous poems are bitterly satirical verses on the bridegroom and the wedding. He had the unchivalrous poet's habit of revenging himself by satire when he met with a rebuff. But the poems in _Heimkehr_ which refer to Therese are not inspired with the bitterness and hatred which Heine frequently displays in writing of her elder sister. He praises Therese's beauty, her lovely eyes, her purity; she is like a flower; he prays to her as others pray to Paul and Peter and the Madonna; and he struggles against his feelings, dreads this new passion. Both pride and shyness forbid him to declare it; it would be better for her if she did not love him; at times he has himself tried to prevent the awakening of love in her soul; but, having been only too successful in the attempt, the desire for her love once more asserts itself. He is too proud to speak of his passion and of his suffering, mockery and jests are on his lips, while inwardly he is bleeding to death; but she does not understand him, does not see that his heart is trembling, is breaking. Hence these lines: "O, dieser Mund ist viel zu stolz Und kann nur küssen und scherzen; Er spräche vielleicht ein höhnisches Wort, Während ich sterbe vor Schmerzen."[10] [10] Alas, this mouth is far too proud, 'Twas made but for kissing and sighing; Perchance it may speak a scornful word, While I with sorrow am dying. (BOWRING.) But this time the threat of dying is not intended to be taken literally. For in another poem we find the sincere assurance:-- "Glaub' nicht, dass ich mich erschiesse, Wie schlimm auch die Sachen steh'n! Das Alles, meine Süsse, Ist mir schon einmal gescheh'n."[11] [11] Fear not that I shall languish, Or shoot myself: oh, no! I've gone through all this anguish Already, long ago. (LELAND.) Undoubtedly, however, he felt deeply and suffered greatly this time also. Strange as it sounds, cousin-love, which is, as a rule, merely the initiation into the life of passion, its first preliminary stage,[12] (Note 20) was the only serious, and not perfectly transient passion known to young Heine. And no feeling experienced later, in his mature manhood, approached in intensity to this youthful twin-passion for two sisters, the second of whom reminded him of the first. [12] Aux prés de l'enfance on cueille Les petites amourettes Qu'on jette au vent feuille à feuille, Ainsi que des pâquerettes; On cueille dans ces prairies Les voisines, les cousines, Les amourettes fleuries Et qui n'ont pas de racines. (RICHEPIN.)