"Genial in verse, erudite in prose, noble in his political career, amiable in his private life, and unostentatiously reverent of things divine ..." Alexander Platt's characterization of Ludwig Uhland sprang directly from his personal acquaintance with this eminent Swabian Romantic. It was printed in the "Biographical Notice" to his English translations of Uhland's poetry published in 1848, a year to be remembered for the Austro-Hungarian and Prussian revolutions, the gathering momentum toward unifying the German nation, and Uhland's election to the new German Assembly in Frankfurt am Main. Neither dazzlingly brilliant nor renowned for invention, Uhland brought a charm, directness, and comprehensibility to poetry which superseded the grand and mystical design of Novalis and the critical and creative thinking of the Schlegel brothers. Commonly regarded as excelling in balladry and undramatic in his plays, Uhland's threefold contribution to German Romanticism as poet, politician, and scholar was significant and distinctive.

Johann...