Eduard MÖrike was born in Ludwigsburg, September 8, 1804. Circumstances forced him into the study of theology, and so he passed through the schools preparatory to the famous TÜbingen School of Divinity, where he completed his studies. He proved but an indifferent student (his thorough knowledge of Greek and Latin was in good part the result of later studies), he preferred to live in a fairy world of his own creation. Nature, music, and poetry were his delight, and of all the poets Goethe was always his favorite. For eight years MÖrike was vicar in various villages of WÜrttemberg, more than once tempted to give up the ministry, but finally realizing that there was no better place to live his poet dreams than the attic room of a Suabian parsonage.

In 1834 he became pastor in Cleversulzbach, a secluded little village, nestling among the Suabian hills. Here the poet, with his mother and sister, lived an idyllic existence, his most frequent visitor the Muse. Ill health forced him to resign in 1843, and MÖrike once more became a wanderer. During these years love again crossed his path, and to be able to marry—his pension was too meager—he accepted (1851) a position at a girls' seminary in Stuttgart, where he taught German Literature for one or two hours a week, a none too heavy and an altogether congenial task. MÖrike died June 4, 1875.

MÖrike's poetry gives abundant proof of a rich creative imagination. Even his everyday speech was of an astounding concreteness, and thus the various aspects of Nature assume bodily shape. Spring becomes a youth, the symphony of spring the soft tone of a harp (81); the night—a fairy woman—leans against the rocky cliff listening to the azure of the sky (79). Although the idyllic predominates, deeper tragic notes are not wanting (84, 85) nor is the full note of exuberant joy (86). But early in life MÖrike realized that any overflowing measure of joy or grief would prove destructive to his oversensitive nature, and the golden mean became inevitably his ideal (88). Never has he expressed that sweet serenity of soul, which he gained not without a bitter struggle, more beautifully than in the melodious lines: "Auf eine Lampe" (87).

79. In its allegorical personification the poem might be compared to a painting of BÖcklin. Like Venus of yore, the night rises from the sea and at midnight sees the golden balance of time (the heavenly bodies) rest in equilibrium. The springs try to lull the night, their mother, to sleep with a song of the beauty of the day. She prefers the azure melody of the midnight sky, but the waters continue to sing, even in their sleep, of the day that has just passed. This contest the poet has also portrayed rhythmically: compare the measured trochaic movement of the first half of each stanza with the lighter and more rapid dactylic movement of the second half.

5. KECKER, since the noises of the day no longer interfere with their song.

12. In apposition with des Himmels BlÄue. The firmament is the yoke along which the fleeting hours glide; GLEICHGESCHWUNGEN, equally arched, i.e., perfectly circular.

80.—3. SCHLEIER, of mist.

5. HERBSTKRÄFTIG, full of autumnal vigor; GEDÄMPFT, because the mists and the haze have softened all sharpness of outline and color.

81.—1. BLAUES BAND, metaphorical for blue sky.

7. HARFENTON, the symphony of spring, the heard and unheard stirring of new life.

82. The stanza form is an adaptation of a famous Lutheran hymn: Wie schÖn leuchtet der Morgenstern.

83. Of the character of the Feuerreiter, a creation of MÖrike, only this much is clear: he fights fire and has often used sinfully (freventlich) holy means (des heil'gen Kreuzes Span) to charm fire. Finally, however, he becomes a victim of the infernal powers.

21. DER ROTE HAHN, the symbol of fire.

26. FEIND, Satan.

40. As the refrain in the preceding stanzas has depicted the tolling of the bell, so the sudden break here depicts the ceasing.

42. MÜßEN, old weak dative.

84. In its beautiful simplicity this song has become a folksong, Since it presents many metrical irregularities, the following scansion may be found useful. A dot is used to indicate pitch accent.[*]

[* Transcriber's note: Here represented by 'Y'.]

X — X — X — — XX — X — XX — XX — X — XX — X Y — X — X — X — X — X — X — X — X X — X — X Y — X — X — — XX — X — X — XX — X — XX — X X — X — — X — X — X — X — X — X X — X — X

86. MÖrike found the name Rohtraut by chance in an old German lexicon. The full vowel coloring appealed to him and called forth this ballad.

5. TUT etc., dialectic periphrastic conjugation = fischt und jagt.

19. WUNNIGLICH (wonniglich). 22. VERGUNNT (vergÖnnt)—these archaic forms are in keeping with the tone of the ballad and the patriarchal life at King Ringang's court.

87. Appropriately written in the stately Greek trimeter (iambic verse of six feet). Compare with this poem the closing lines of Keats' Ode to a Grecian Urn:

Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all
Ye know on earth and all ye need to know.

Was aber schÖn ist, selig scheint es in ihm selbst.
But beauty seems a thing all blessed within itself.

6. SCHLINGT DEN RINGELREIHN, circle about in a round dance.

10. IHM, old reflexive instead of sich.

88. The confession of MÖrike's ideal.

1. WILLT = willst.

2. A thing of joy or a thing of sorrow.

5-7. WOLLEST NICHT ÜBERSCHÜTTEN, pray do not overwhelm with a flood of.

89. Lines of three and of two accents alternate, so that the poem is really written in blank verse; its character is, however, entirely changed, since the last word of each line stands out because of the necessary rhythmical pause. Notice the change in the last two lines.