Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff is considered one of Germany's foremost lyric poets of the Romantic period. His works give expression to quintessential traits of this literary movement. Mention of Eichendorff's poetry immediately brings to mind the song of the lark as it ascends into a beautiful summer sunrise, and the song of the nightingale filling a lush summer night with its song of beauty and love. It also brings to mind the romance of the poet's wanderings through large forests with their "Waldeinsamkeit" (wooded seclusion), as well as the many-faceted symbols for the demonic forces of nature found in his work, their modes of expression bordering both on folk song and fairy tale. It brings to mind, finally, his story "Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts" (1826; translated as Memoirs of a Good-for-Nothing , 1866), which became a classic during his lifetime. Eichendorff's other prose works, however, received scant notice at the...