Member of the group of Anacreontic poets (the Halle poets) including J.P. Uz and J.N. Götz who gave rise to a literary rococo style in German literature during the 1740s.
Gleim´s poetry consciously repudiated the designs and aims of both Baroque and Enlightenment writers who tended toward glorification and idealization of their themes. Instead he affected a wholly decorative, unpretentious manner that sought to amuse friends.
Gleim´s first collection of poems Versuch in Scherzhaften Gedichten (1744, Experiments in Frolicsome Songs) reflecting the rococo preoccupation with fanciful themes mostly in praise of love, wine and youth brought him immediate recognition and significantly influenced later 18th-century verse.
His Preussische Kriegslieder von einem Grenadier (1758, Prussian War Songs of a Grenadier) which was inspired by the campaigns of Frederick II of Prussia although Gleim took no active part in them reflects his interest in patriotic themes and in folk style -poetic elements that became increasingly popular during the later half of the 18th century.
He studied law at Halle and served as secretary to various court and church offices.
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