We do not find Wilhelm Müller marring the impression of his idyll by any sudden revulsion of mood; there is nothing of the devil in him; the gentle andante is maintained to the end of the piece. But it is not in this that the principal difference between his style and Heine's lies; for Heine at times retains his tranquil mood throughout a whole poem. The essential difference is the extraordinary condensation of Heine's style, as compared with Müller's. He gives in one verse, at most two, what the other requires ten to express. The novelty in his lyric style is its unparalleled condensation. The poems are all epitomes. They present us with a spiced, fragrant essence of passion, experience, bitterness, mockery, wit, emotion, and fancy; an essence of poetry and prose in combination. Psychologists talk of a condensation of thought;[3] in comparison with the pupil's thought, the master's is condensed. In the history of all mechanism, increasing condensation is to be observed. Once there were only church clocks; now people carry clocks in their pockets. That is to say, the mechanism which once required for its wheels and springs the space provided by a church clock, now finds room enough in a watch. In like manner, many an old tragedy does not contain more thoughts or more feeling than a Heine poem of two or three verses. [3] Lazarus: _Das Leben der Seele_, 2nd edition, p. 229. Heine's short stanza has, then, two advantages over Wilhelm Müllers--more passion, and much greater condensation of style. In his favourite short iambic metre, Heine is influenced by Wilhelm Müller, in his trochees he resembles another Romantic, far more Romantic poet, Clemens Brentano. In Heine's _Romancero_ there are some curious correspondences with Brentano's _Romanzen vom Rosenkranze_ ("Romances of the Rosary"). These latter were written before _Romancero_, but as they were not published till 1853, Heine cannot possibly have been influenced by them. In the second of the _Rosary Romances_ we read of the hero, Cosmo, that: "Aus dem Wasserspiegel mahnt Ihn des Alters ernste Bote: Du wirst bald die Schuld bezahlen, Spricht des Hauptes Silberlocke."[4] [4] The solemn messengers of age, the white locks of the man who gazes at him from the water-mirror, cry: Soon thou must pay thy debt. In Heine's posthumous poem _Bimini_, one of the divisions begins: "Einsam auf dem Strand von Cuba, Vor dem stillen Wasserspiegel, Steht ein Mensch und er betrachtet In der Flut sein Konterfei. Eben nicht mit sonderlichem Wohlgefallen scheint der Greis In dem Wasser zu betrachten Sein bekümmert Spiegelbildniss."[5] [5] On the shore of Cuba's island Stands an old man solitary, Gazing at his own reflection In the tranquil water-mirror. Not with any special pleasure Does the sad and aged man See beneath him in the water His own image, sorrowful. Metre, situation, idea are identical in the two passages.