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Compare these verses of Traum ein Leben with the following passage in his diary:
“I cannot endure things thus any longer. If this unbearable, slow dragging along keeps up I shall perish. This ominous, soul killing feeling of uniqueness, this continual doubting of my own worth, this hopeless yearning of my heart—I can endure it no longer! Therefore away,—off with this unbearable situation! Forth into the wide world I must venture so as to drown at least this craving if it cannot be gratified. Amidst the world's uproar, in strange lands, surrounded by other people, perhaps my soul will again find that peace which made the days of my earlier youth to flow so happily; perhaps the Swiss Alps will awaken in my soul once more that feeling which streamed forth so bountifully in Blanka von Castilien and which now, depressed by the burden of my current mood, is altogether too helpless. Yes, forth to Switzerland! Heavenly country! Indeed, in your valleys, among your fields, if anywhere, I should seek again that peace of mind which I lost in the midst of these disgusting, maimed, narrow souls. The manly utterances of your inhabitants shall make me forget the silly twaddle of these half-men; I shall wander through those holy towns which have been baptized by Winkelried with the blood of his body, the places hallowed by Erlach with his mighty deeds. I must fly away from this miserable land of despotism and stupidity and all the attendant evils, away from this land where public service is still measured with the hoary yard stick of bygone days, where nothing is considered a worthy enjoyment unless it be something eatable, where a Collin is regarded as a matador, where wisdom is a crime