Heinrich Heine was born in 1979 and died in 1856. Alongside Goethe, he remains Germany's most popular poet - partly on account of the numerous muslcal settings of his early verse. He was in his time an outspoken and controversial figure , not only for introducing irony and wit into lyric poetry but also for his radical politics.

This book takes a representative selection from all phases of Heine's playful and remarkably diverse poetry, ranging from the early love lyrics through the political verse to the final bitter poems of terminal illness.