Eduard Friedrich Mörike (; 8 September 18044 June 1875) After the death of his father, in 1817, he went to live with his uncle Eberhard Friedrich von Georgii, president of Württemberg Supreme Tribunal in Stuttgart, who intended his nephew to become a clergyman. Seminary to study theology and classics, the latter something that was to become a major influence on his writing. He met the kindred spirit and poetically gifted Ludwig Amandus Bauer (1803–1846). In 1825, Friedrich Theodor Vischer and David Friedrich Strauss joined. dating from 1831. Their shared imaginations gave rise to the Orplid myth, which they later developed into a literary work. He also wrote a somewhat fantastic Idylle vom Bodensee, oder Fischer Martin und die Glockendiebe (1846), the fairy tale Das Stuttgarter Hutzelmännlein (1855), and published a collection of hymns, odes, elegies, and idylls of the Greeks and Romans, entitled Klassische Blumenlese (1840).

His work was greatly praised by the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein who recommended him to Bertrand Russell as <blockquote>really a great poet and his poems are among the best things we have...the beauty of Mörike's work is very closely related to Goethe's.</blockquote>

Musical settings

Many of his lyrics were set to music by Hugo Wolf, Ludwig Hetsch, Didia Saint Georges, Elise Schmezer, Julie Waldburg-Wurzach, Pauline Volkstein, and Fritz Kauffmann. Ignaz Lachner set to music his opera Die Regenbrüder. Hugo Distler composed 48 settings of Mörike's poetry in his Mörike-Chorliederbuch. Many of his poems became established folksongs.

As an artist

Mörike was also known to produce drawings in his time, though it is not the subject of much discussion. While staying in the town of Wermutshausen in the Autumn of 1843, Mörike produced a drawing of the Petruskirche, a small church built in the early 1800s.

Notes

  • Poetry of Eduard Mörike in English Translation