Some Neo-Classical and Classical Eddies in Mörike’s Idylle vom Bodensee

Abstract

ABSTRACT Mörike’s poem has been neglected, for various possible reasons, and often misread. The poem’s three time layers are distinct. It has some echoes of Goethe and Voss, uses some Homeric devices, and claims links to Hebel and to Theocritus. The central character is problematic, recalling Odysseus. Despite its title the poem has an elegiac quality.