Eduard Mörike is known primarily for his lyric poetry and short prose. He is considered a premier poet of the post-Romantic era; his poems were influenced by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's, giving him a widespread reputation as "Goethe's spiritual son." His early writings exhibit a struggle with the German Romantics, while later works bear the mark of Greek and Roman models. Though such influences often ring through his verses, he is praised as one of the most original poets of the nineteenth century. Another common image of Mörike is that of a provincial poet; often he is linked with the Biedermeier sensibility, which involves a passive and apolitical acceptance of authority, a contentment within limitations, a withdrawal from social reality, and a nostalgia for a simpler, more idyllic age. Alongside Goethean nature lyrics and Romantic explorations of the depths of human subjectivity stand humorous...