  We investigate the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) discovered by
White and show that in the case where the renormalization eventually converges
to a fixed point the DMRG ground state can be simply written as a ``matrix
product'' form. This ground state can also be rederived through a simple
variational ansatz making no reference to the DMRG construction. We also show
how to construct the ``matrix product'' states and how to calculate their
properties, including the excitation spectrum. This paper provides details of
many results announced in an earlier letter.
