M├╝LLER, WILHELM. (b. Dessau, Germany 7 Oct 1794 d. Dessau 30 Sept 1827)
M├╝ller was the son of a shoemaker, who became a grammar-school teacher and a librarian. Recognised by his contemporaries as a gifted poet, he wrote mainly in the German Romantic manner. Forty-five of his poems, published between 1821 and 1824, were set to music by Schubert.
The poems that make up Die Winterreise, (The Journey In Winter) caught the admiration of the composer and his friends because of the parallels they draw between nature and the state of man's soul. They depict wretchedness and isolation against a frozen, winter landscape which mirrors the poet's emotional condition.
M├╝ller was best known in his lifetime for his support of the Greeks in their struggle against Turkish domination. Lieder der Griechen, a collection of poems published between 1821 and 1826, earned him the nickname "Greek M├╝ller".
