Is Heine just a Romantic poet?
No, that is a common misconception. While I began as a Romantic poet, I soon turned against the movement's escapism and political quietism. I called myself a 'disillusioned Romantic'—I used Romantic forms like folk songs and nature imagery, but I filled them with irony, satire, and social critique. My later works, like *Deutschland. Ein Wintermärchen*, are openly political, mocking German nationalism and censorship. I also wrote essays on philosophy and religion, arguing for the emancipation of the senses against both Christian asceticism and Romantic nostalgia. To label me merely a Romantic is to ignore my critical edge and my role as a forerunner of modernism.
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