Eichendorff, Joseph, Freiherr von, 1788-1857, German poet, a leader of the late romantics. He studied law, volunteered in Lützow's corps in the Napoleonic Wars, and, as a civil servant in Berlin, associated with Schlegel, Arnim, Brentano, and other romantic poets. Eichendorff's lyric verse, in folk-song style, is notable for its highly personal expression of love of home and worship of nature. Much of it was set to music by Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Wolf, and many others. His prose is lyrical as well; Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts (1826, tr. Memoirs of a Good-for-Nothing, 1866) is filled with his romantic yearnings and poetic dreams. There are many translations of his poems, among them The Happy Wanderer and Other Poems (1925).

(born , March 10, 1788, near Ratibor, Prussia—died Nov. 26, 1857, Neisse) German poet and novelist. Born to the nobility, he and his family lost their castle in the Napoleonic Wars, and he later worked in the Prussian civil service. He became associated with the national leaders of the Romantic movement while studying in Berlin. His most important prose work, Memoirs of a Good-for-Nothing (1826), is considered a high point of Romantic fiction. In the 1830s he wrote poetry that achieved the popularity of folk songs and inspired such composers as Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn, Johannes Brahms, Hugo Wolf, and Richard Strauss.

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