Wilhelm Müller Criticism
Wilhelm Müller (1794–1827) was a German lyric poet renowned for his contribution to the late Romantic lyric cycle, a form characterized by its simplicity akin to popular folksongs. He is celebrated for his cycles such as Die schöne Müllerin and Die Winterreise, famously set to music by Franz Schubert. These cycles explore themes of unrequited love through the wandering journeys of their protagonists, a miller boy and a musician, respectively. As noted by Alan P. Cottrell, Müller's use of the German folk song tradition highlights profound themes of life and self-knowledge.
Müller's work extended beyond these cycles, reflecting on political themes such as the Greek War of Independence in his Lieder der Griechen, which gained him considerable acclaim and the moniker "the German Lord Byron." These works are notable for advocating freedom and democracy, engaging European support for the Greek cause and challenging Prussian censorship. Müller's ability to weave political motives into his poetry is praised in The Poetry of Wilhelm Müller for its metrical excellence and emotional range.
Despite historical criticism labeling his work as naïve or conventional, recent scholarship, including that by Susan Youens, positions Müller as a complex poet who disguised depth beneath apparent simplicity. His cycles have been interpreted as allegories of self-knowledge and resilience in the face of despair, as discussed in Die Winterreise: The Secret of the Cycle's Appeal.
Müller's biography reveals a life marked by personal loss and political engagement. He began writing poetry in his youth and pursued a literary career that included translating, editing, and writing novellas. His personal experiences, particularly in service during the Napoleonic Wars and his European travels, infused his poetry with a sense of wandering and longing, reflecting his deep connection to themes of nature and human emotion. His literary legacy continues to be reassessed, affirming his place as a significant figure in the landscape of German Romantic literature.
Contents
- Principal Works
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Essays
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The Poetry of Wilhelm Müller
(summary)
In the following essay, Hatfield praises Müller both for pioneering the lyric cycle form that presents its progress of action through a loosely-knit sequence of poems, and for the excellent metrical qualities, descriptiveness, characterization, and range of feeling found in various poems of Müller's cycles.
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Wilhelm Müller's Poetry of the Sea
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In the following essay, Richardson examines the originality of Müller's Muscheln von der Insel Rügen and Lieder aus dem Meerbusen von Salerno as contributions to poetry about the sea.
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The Flowering of the Narrative Cycle: Uhland, Wilhelm Müller, Heine
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Mustard contends that most of Müller's cycles lack unity and cohesion because the individual poems were not written with a specific cycle structure in mind but rather were only incorporated into a given cycle after composition.
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Die schöne Müllerin
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Cottrell examines the themes and images found in Die schöne Müllerin [The Pretty Maid of the Mill], showing how Millier uniquely fashioned the German folk song tradition to portray his own sense of the meaning of life and death as a process toward self-knowledge.
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The Poet
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Baumann considers the metrical variations, lyric cycles, use of roles, and affinity to the German folk song of Müller's poetry.
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Die Winterreise: The Secret of the Cycle's Appeal
(summary)
In the following essay, Baumann and Luetgert analyze Die Winterreise in terms of the "stages of dying" outlined in the book entitled Death and Dying by Elizabeth Kübler-Ross.
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The Texts of Winterreise
(summary)
In the following excerpt, Youens interprets Die Winterreise in terms of the quest for self-knowledge, the denial of a comforting transcendant reality or illusion, and the tenacity of life in spite of intense grief and depression over the loss of a loved one.
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'Strange Old Man': Thoughts on the Closing Lines of Winterreise
(summary)
In the following excerpt on 'Der Leiermann'—the final poem in Die Winterreise—Smeed explains the word 'wunderlich' as an epithet describing the unreasonably eccentric state of mind and actions of both the hurdy-gurdy man and the Wanderer.
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The Poetry of Wilhelm Müller
(summary)
- Further Reading