| Studies in German Literature, University of Basel, Switzerland [Dissertation Abstract] Eduard Mörike: Wirklichkeit und Dichtung — Studie zur Dichtung der Frühzeit by Charles Cingolani Juris Verlag Zurich 1972 English Title: Eduard Mörike: Reality and Poetry — A Study of the the Early Poetry (Eduard Mörike, German poet 1804-1875, The Swabian School) Synopsis: This study is concerned with the beginnings - the gradual awakening and rapid development of E. Mörike's lyric potential. Its method of inquiry combines biography with a close scrutiny of the poetic texts. The study attempts to show that a tense relationship existed between Mörike's real world and his imagined world and that this tension proved to be profoundly fruitful as a source of poetic creativity. The reader is introduced to young Mörike the schoolboy, learns of his home life and of the events which led up to his entrance into the Protestant Preparatory Seminary in Urach - an event which was to play a crucial role in the shaping of his future. His first poems, seen as a reaction against seminary life, appear to be experiments in escape. The thinly disguised, sensitive subject who pities himself all too openly is readily recognizable as Mörike himself. As young Mörike’s conscious commitment to art grows, his dissatisfaction with seminary life becomes increasingly acute. Finally, after his ordination, Mörike experiences a total disillusionment with the ministry and takes leave of his duties to search for a way of life that would allow him to live for poetry alone. Failure forces him to return voluntarily to his vicariate where he attempts to reconcile his profession with the pursuit of the muse. From this time on, his poetry begins to reflect something of the inner harmony and balance which that act of acquiescence helped him to acquire. Thus, the melancholy subject of the earliest poems begins to give way to a more disguised, less self-indulgent poetic "I". Mörike's choice of subject matter and the role he assigns to the poetic subject show how his attention became attracted to the world outside himself. In poetry this development is discernable in the gradual change in the poetic "I' as he progresses from his initial role of active protagonist to a role of complete passivity. In a chapter devoted to the Peregrina poetry the author compares Mörike's poetry of experience with his poetry of reflection. In an analysis of original and revised texts he shows how the mature poet was able to transform a devastating past experience into a poetic reality that could symbolize love in its most noble aspects. He withdrew from love's sensual hold to be able to give the experience an ideal, mythical existence. In so doing, the Peregrina poetry exemplifies how Mörike incorporated life and art: by renouncing one to possess the other. The final two chapters examine the variations on the ever-recurring themes of the early period: nature and love. As for the mature poetry, the attempt is made to demonstrate how the poetic "I" in effect coincides with the objective world , mirroring its sensual properties. Mörike makes us feel what we think we see. His approach to nature is highly personal, but his presence in each poem is hardly noticeable. This subjective transparency typifies the best of his mature poems. The technique is different in the love poetry of the final chapter. Analysed with an eye to his engagement to Louise Rau, this poetry reveals how the poet attempted to see in her an ideal which in reality did not exist. Less sensuous than the nature poems, these appeal more to the intellect. At this stage the difference between the young and the mature poet is marked: increasingly Mörike gains control over emotion; sensuousness and spontaneity give way to intellect, a greater reliance on form becomes evident. The tension between reality and poetry lessens as the two merge. Home |
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