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This article dwells upon time and space in J. von Eichendorff's Eine Meerfahrt (1836). Eichendorff seldom uses the sea as an element of his fictitious
landscapes; there are, however, a few prominent cases where the sea becomes a symbol of the Absolute, of an element comprising the entire world. Eichendorff rarely uses such an image; he typically relies upon creeks, rivers, streams, etc. The imagery of the novella Eine Meerfahrt provides for an impressive array of allusions to different texts, both by other authors and by Eichendorff himself. In earlier works, Eichendorff used such allusions as a means of discussion, arguing in favor or against certain elements of the worldview expressed in the works of his fellow romanticists. This article suggests that Eine Meerfahrt is different in nature, being comparable rather to Eichendorff's later works on literary history. This novella is interpreted as a literary 'biography' of the Romantic movement. Eine Meerfahrt speaks of a voyage, or rather two voyages across the ocean, both abortive; these are regarded as a symbolic depiction of the 'promise' and 'failure' of the Romanticism (Eichendorff used these expressions in his autobiographic notes). A change in the narrator's point of view, which is observed in the last lines of the novella, is interpreted as a shift into the point of view of a historian who is detached both from the passed Romantic era and from the new epoch coming in its stead.