The Sorcerer's Apprentice him in his youth. It is, indeed, the oldest known variation of this tale type. While the similarities are so great as to make it obvious that Lucian was Goethe's inspiration, there are several minor differences: Similar themes (such as the power of magic or technology turning against the insufficiently wise person invoking it) are found in many traditions and works of art: Following Goethe's poem and Dukas' symphonic piece and the film "Fantasia", the term "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" has had numerous iterations as the title of various media pieces. These include several novels and nonfiction books, including novels by
The Traveller (poem) modern, has a plan so noble, and at the same time so simple. The novelist William Black, on the other hand, while highly praising the poem's mellifluous qualities, admitted that "the literary charm of "The Traveller" is more apparent than the value of any doctrine, however profound or ingenious, which the poem was supposed to inculcate". More recent academic criticism continues to assert the poem's claims to respectful attention. Arthur Humphreys considered it "a true and thoughtful poem"; Boris Ford noted "the judicious tone, the unruffled movement, the urbane and fluent control of the couplet", which "established him as a