In Heine's first prose article, that on Romanticism, written in 1820, he expresses his gratitude and makes his Romantic confession of faith in the same breath. He protests against the idea of Romanticism being "a mixture of Spanish enamel, Scotch mists, and Italian jingle"; no, Romantic poetry ought not to be obscure and vague; its images may be as plastic in contour as those of classic poetry. "Hence it is," he writes, "that our two greatest Romanticists, Goethe and A. W. Schlegel, are at the same time our greatest plastic artists." And he names Goethe's _Faust_ and Schlegel's _Rome_ in the same breath, as models of plastic outline, concluding pathetically: "O, that those who love to call themselves Schlegelians would lay this to heart!" This passage should be noted by those whose only knowledge of Heine's connection with Schlegel is derived from the low attack on the latter's private life in _Die Romantische Schule_. It was to A. W. Schlegel, moreover, that Heine addressed his three first sonnets. In the earliest he thanks him for his personal kindness, and declares his own great indebtedness to him; in the second he extols him for the service which he has rendered to German poetry by banishing that caricature in hoop and patches which in his day figured as the Muse; in the third he praises him for his introduction of English, Spanish, early German, Italian, and Indian poetry into modern German literature. The tone is enthusiastic: "Der schlimmste Wurm: des Zweifels Dolchgedanken, Das schlimmste Gift: an eigner Kraft verzagen, Das wollt' mir fast des Lebens Mark zernagen; Ich war ein Reis, dem seine Stützen sanken. Da mochtest du das arme Reis beklagen, An deinem güt'gen Wort lässt du es ranken, Und dir, mein hoher Meister, soll ich's danken, Wird einst das schwache Reislein Blüthen tragen," &c.[1] [1] The most dangerous worm--doubt, with its dagger tooth; the most deadly poison--distrust of one's own powers, were eating away my life; I was a sapling bereft of its supports. Thou hadst pity on the poor sapling, thou gavest it the support of encouraging word; if ever the weak sapling blossoms, thine, great master, be the praise. It is under this first Romantic influence that Heine writes his earliest, purely Romantic poems in archaistic style, verses like: "Die du bist so schön und rein, Wunnevolles Magedein, Deinem Dienste ganz allein Möcht' ich wohl mein Leben weihn. Deine süssen Aeugelein Glänzen mild wie Mondenschein, Helle Rosenlichter streun Deine rothen Wängelein." This reminds us forcibly of Tieck's earliest verses, those introduced into his tales. In the one little poem from which these stanzas are taken, we come upon Wunne, Magedein, Aeugelein, Wängelein, Mündchen, weiland, a whole string of diminutives and archaisms.