The study investigates the speech organization of Carl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel's novel “Lucinde” (1799), which was written at the time of “universal poetry” theory creation and became its true embodiment. One of the key problems of the text is thinking and self-knowledge of the speaking subject. It is also connected with the role of language and dialogic speech in these processes. In this respect the important things are interaction of the speaker with “nameless”, definition and denomination of phenomena (all of them are necessary stages of knowledge), narrative itself, and plot deploying the speech canvas. In the course of these processes the expressive and cognitive abilities of the language are “tested”, its imperfections are revealed, and attempts are made to overcome them. Thus, “Lucinde” appears as a work typical for Early Romanticism with its search for a genuine language, pronounced self-reflexivity and the “socratic” dialogism of the novel form.