Dictionary.net

A famous German poet and novelist; born at Ludwigsburg, Wurtemberg, 1786; died at Weinsberg, 1862. Several of his lyrics-for instance, "Song of Wandering", "The Wanderer in the Saw Mill", -are popular with the masses, and a number were set to music by Schumann. His poetry can be read in "The Last Bunch of Blossoms" (1852) and "Winter Blossoms" (1859). Of his prose works (which included medical writings, he being a physician), "The Seeress of Prevorst" (5th ed. 1877), a result of his studies in animal magnetism and somnambulism, attracted great attention. Noteworthy too was his "Picture Book from my Childhood" (2d ed. 1886). His work was marked by keen observation, fancy, satirical power, humor blended with pathos, and thought always busy with the other world. He may be called the romanticist of the Swabian school of poets.