Eduard Mörike was once considered a simple Romantic, embodying the literary Biedermeier era, a writer of contemplative poems and appealing fairy tales. Keller's assessment after Mörike's death reinforced this perception. The bespectacled face of the poet, which gazes back at us from portraits, formed a distorted image of this important German poet. The tranquility and wit that characterize many of his verses actually served as a bulwark against the intense emotions that assailed him.
From his youth, Mörike displayed an extraordinary sensitivity. The deaths in his family, in particular the loss of his brother and his beloved sister Luise, deeply affected him. An unrequited affection for Maria Meyer significantly deepened his suffering. Although he tried to avoid destructive emotional outbursts, his poems are repeatedly permeated with allusions to unrequited love and infidelity. His work as a pastor brought him no fulfillment, and he changed positions several times before finally settling in Cleversulzbach in 1834.
Mörike could muster no enthusiasm for his clerical profession. Although he composed religious verses that are among the most beautiful in the German language, the ecclesiastical world held little satisfaction for him. He felt uncomfortable in his surroundings and sought refuge in dream worlds and visions. He created the fictional island of Orplid and wrote the romantic Bildungsroman "Maler Nolten" (Painter Nolten).
His life was characterized by a lack of events until he met Margarethe von Speeth and moved to Stuttgart. Despite having two daughters, his domestic situation was never entirely happy, as his diary entries attest. Nevertheless, Mörike maintained friendships with Theodor Storm and others. Ultimately, he separated from his wife and led a restless life until his death in 1875.