Why was 1840 known as Robert Schumann’s year of song?

The year 1840 is famously known as Robert Schumann’s "year of song" because he returned to the genre of the solo song after neglecting it for nearly 12 years. During this highly prolific 11-month period, he composed more than 130 musical settings of poems, including many of the works upon which his reputation as a composer largely rests.12

This creative surge occurred during the same year that Schumann married the pianist Clara Schumann, following a long legal battle to overcome her father's objections. Among the significant song cycles he produced in 1840 are Myrthen, Dichterliebe (Poet’s Love), Frauenliebe und -leben (Woman’s Love and Life), and his two Liederkreise (Song-Cycles) based on texts by Heinrich Heine and Joseph Eichendorff.3421