In 1807 Brentano read several odes by Friedrich Hölderlin. He was fascinated by “The Night” – the separately published first stanza of the elegy “Bread and Wine” – and he described it as “one of the most successful poems ever
written”. In 1834 he started work on a sequel, which breaks off after 130 verses. It begins: “But she offers me no comfort; she knows me and approaches with fear / Like a guard grimly approaching a prisoner / And she hands me a cup that I may fill it with tears / Lays a stone on my heart that I may soften it to bread”.