"The Butterfly and the Kiss": A Letter from Bettina von Arnim

"The Butterfly and the Kiss" has been excerpted from Bettina von Arnim's Die Günderode (1840). It is a particularly important passage from one of "Bettine's" letters to "Caroline," because it describes her relationship to writing, to language, and to nature. Arnim distances herself from the aesthetic expectations of her brother, romantic poet Clemens Brentano, and from certain aspects of romantic philosophy in general. She narrates her discovery of a new, more concrete source of writing outside of her own thoughts, in nature. (KG)