German romantic poet (born 8 September 1804 in Ludwigsburg, Germany – died 4 June 1875 in Stuttgart, Germany).

DO NOT CONFUSE with his grandnephew, the conductor Eduard Mörike (1877-1929).

A clergyman by training, Mörike became an important novelist and poet, best-known for the novel Maler Nolten (1832), his poem collection Gedichte (1838, last enlarged in 1867), and the novella Mozart auf der Reise nach Prag (1855). Written in simple, unaffected German, many of his poems were set to music and some became folk songs, for example, Es schlägt eine Nachtigall, Wie heißt König Ringangs Töchterlein, Früh, wenn die Hähne kräh’n. Particularly well-known are the melodies composer Hugo Wolf created for 53 of Mörike’s poems (Mörike-Lieder, 1888).