BERNHARD ELIS MALMSTRÖM.

VI SUCKAR DET SÅ TUNGT UTI SKOGEN?

1. The folk-song style is apparent throughout this poem, the first distinctive mark being the superfluous use of the pronoun immediately after its antecedent, a manner of speech borrowed from the vernacular and incorporated with numerous popular ballads. Cf. lines 18, 19, 22.

8. hemsk uti sitt mod, apprehensive of danger; till mods is the idiomatic phrase.

10. tänkte stygga tankar, thought of grewsome things.

II. vilsegick, usually not compounded.

12. kär, properly kära.

13. Gud nåde mig, som liten är, a paraphrase of the second line from a common children's prayer beginning, Gud, som haver barnen kär; the poet also seems to have copied from this the irregular form kär, in line 12.

13. The home is so clearly in the lad's mind that the idea is adequately expressed by där.

18. trollena, a vernacular def. pl. form for trollen. This form in -a has been exploited by recent metropolitan writers, as also by Selma Lagerlöf, but without gaining general favor among the best stylists of Sweden.

22. vidan hed, archaic for vida heden. Cf. grönan ö (gröna ön), 45.

25. så, frequently thus interpolated in careless speech and here lending a savor of the common tongue.

39. hemsk (frightened),—till mods being mentally supplied from the second stanza.

50. den arma jord(en), the suffixed definite sign being frequently dropped in poetic style.

52. all … mord; the correspondence between qualifiers and nouns is sometimes lost in a series, as here, lögn and flärd (sg.) requiring all, but mord (pl.), alla. Analogous inconsistencies are found in the best literature, as in Tegner's Addresses (På Växjö gymnasium, 1836): "Den som sitter vid lästen och den som sitter vid statsstyret, vid svarvstolen eller på lärostolen, vid plogen eller lyran," the quotation conveying the incongruous idea of "sitting at the plow," as at the shoemaker's bench or the turning lathe.

62. Herren vill jag lova calls for a sharp distinction between lova (praise) and lova (promise).

ÖDMJUKER ER!

1. ödmjuker; the alternative form in -er (2nd person pl., imperative) is peculiar to solemn rhetorical style. Cf. lines 13, 15, 32.

2. himlens rand, usually the horizon, here has a vague and undefinable poetic meaning.

K. V. A. STRANDBERG.

BARRIKADER.

14. på sistone, archaic form of på det sista; modern style, till sist, at length.

MANING.

2. harar, the common metaphor to designate cowardice.

6. The red color indicating the liberalist party whose cause the poet pleaded.

9. Karlars blod, the blood of the Swedish kings of that name.

MITT DÖDA BARN.

12. karl; the rhyme here calls for the popular pronunciation, with the l mute.

44. Allusion to an ancient Greek custom. Thanatos, death, was represented as a human figure with a torch reversed.

TACK FÖR GOD VAKT!

This poem, written shortly before his death, was the poet's farewell to life. The title is characteristic, being a traditional form of greeting when guards were dismissed from duty and replaced by others.

9. Georg Stiernhielm (1598-1672), philologist and poet, was the foremost Swedish savant of his time. His noted place among Swedish poets was won through priority rather than by any great creative genius. Hakvin Spegel (1645-1714), archbishop of Sweden, was a noted religious poet, many of whose hymns are found in the present hymn book of the Church of Sweden.

39-40. The sentiment contained in these lines is fully borne out in the foregoing poem, Mitt döda barn, a touching expression of intense parental affection.

43-46. Though never suffering actual want, the poet for several years after his marriage in 1847 made a very meager living as a journalist, and the lines may be more poetic than true. "During these years his bread was not infrequently more than scarce, and want was often on the point of crossing his threshold," says J.A. RUNSTRÖM.

53-56. The poet faintly alludes to an attack of blindness in his youth which left traces for life.

VIKTOR RYDBERG.

DEXIPPOS.

The poem bears as its title the name of a Grecian historian, who flourished at the time of the invasion of the Goths, one episode of which is here described, the poet dating the event 267 A.D.

1. Pallas' stad, i.e. Athens, whose tutelary goddess was Pallas Athene.

8. örnar, the eagle-shaped figures used as standards in the Roman army. That emblem of imperialism had been the ensign of the kings of Babylon and of the Ptolemies. The Romans adopted it in conjunction with other devices, but Marius made it the ensign of the legion, and confined the other devices to the cohorts. It has remained to this day the preëminent sign of power in coats of arms, whether of monarchies, empires or republics. See U.S. seal and ensigns.

järn, here, the swords and lances of the legions.

24. The Corybant priests of the goddess Cybele in Phrygia, Asia Minor, worshiped by means of boisterous music and frantic dances.

27. Befriarn Dionysos. Dionysus, the god of wine and vineyards and of dramatic poetry, was styled Liberator (from care). Note the effective application of the same epithet in the personifications following.

39. som Dodonas gamla ek. The simile refers to the famous oracle at Dodona, in Epirus, dedicated to Zevs. The oracular answers were supposed to be derived from the whispering of the breezes in the crown of a great sacred oak.

Dodonas ekar talade fordomdags, ur helga skuggor stammades ödets dom.

(Dodona's oaks aforetime their message spake; Prom sacred shadows stammering Fate's decree.)

TEGNÉR'S "Träden."

42. The three great commanders and statesmen here named flourished about 500-450 B.C. and their achievements were still fresh in the memory of the Athenians after more than two hundred years, hence, (43) de leva ännu—de stå mig när. Great as these heroes were, the hyperbole in line 41, då en värld befriades, is obvious.

45. Kerameikos, the old Potters' Quarter in Athens, transformed into one of the finest parts of the city, with a wide square or plaza which is here specifically meant.

46. pyrririsk vapendans—the ancient Pyrrhic dance was performed to the music of flutes, by armed men simulating a hand to hand battle.

63. ett panateneiskt festtåg—the Panathenaea was the most ancient and important festival of Athens, celebrated in honor of the goddess Athena, in part by a festive procession to her temple in the center of the Acropolis.

75. falang—the Greek phalanx was a body of heavily armed infantry formed in close ranks and files varying from four to twenty-five ranks deep.

76. tyrteiska hymnen, a martial hymn by the ancient Spartan poet Tyrtaeus who flourished in the seventh century B.C.

81 ff. The Song of the Athenians is written in distich form, a strophic group of two lines; this was a favorite form for elegiac and other solemn poetry.

93 ff. The Song of the Goths is characterized both by the irregularity of old German verse and the alliteration of the Eddic poetry of Scandinavia. It forms a striking contrast to the careful chiseling of the Greek verse.

94. nickar here implies not only a nodding or swaying motion but a command, as expressed in what follows. Thus, the pine tree of the North, like the oak of Dodona, is voicing the decree of destiny.

112. lekt Maraton. The beating off of the Goths on this occasion, however, did not prove as decisive a battle as that of Marathon. Not until their defeat by Claudius in the battle of Naissus two years later did the Goths cease to harass and devastate Greece and other territories of the Roman empire inadequately protected by its legions (see line 8).

I KLOSTERCELLEN.

4. kodex, manuscript in text hand on parchment, usually containing some portion of Scripture or of classic literature.

19-20. By conserving classic learning the monks during medieval times nurtured the seeds of culture from which was to spring the Reformation of the Church and its concomitant, the civilization of the modern age. Cf. lines 14-16.

24. Platos himmel och Perikles' republik.—What the poet here refers to as "Plato's heaven" may be briefly defined as the ideal world (as conceived in his philosophy), dominated by the highest of all ideas, that of absolute good. But the ideal good in Plato's philosophy did not mean a personal God, hence a purely religious conception of heaven was not a part of his system.

Pericles, though himself of aristocratic birth, was the protagonist of democracy in Greece, in opposition to Cimon, who through his influence was exiled 460 B.C. The republic subsequently established by Pericles was in fact, according to the contemporary historian Thucydides, an autocracy by common consent.—-The line has reference to the activity of the learned friars, especially of the Renaissance period, in reduplicating copies of the remnants of the old Greek literature, thereby saving to the world the knowledge of Greek thought and Greek institutions.

30-32. The closing lines present, as does the poem as a whole, a picture of the entire period known as the Middle Ages.

SNÖFRID.

Snöfrid is a mythical being idealized by Rydberg into a guiding genius pointing the way of ambition, strife and self-sacrifice, while most poets dealing with similar characters, so common in literature, make them out wanton and seductive agencies of destruction, like the sirens.

35. troll i dvärgaham, dwarflike trolls. Hamn, shape, apparition, is sometimes, and probably more correctly, written ham; so also by LEVERTIN in En gammal nyårsvisa:

som en svart och spöklik ham sorgens fåle dröjer.

99. ju himlen närmare, for ju närmare himlen, is a poetic innovation; ju and desto, as conjunctions, immediately precede the comparative form of the adjective.

109-10. Allusion to the Eddic song Voluspá, stanzas 8 and 63, where it is said of the gods:

8. Guldtavel på gården de glade lekte —allt av guld de i överflöd hade.

63. Därefter varda de underbara guldtavlorna i gräset funna, dem de i urtiden ägt hade.

TOMTEN.

9. Står där så grå—the frequent omission of the subject (cf. lines 17, 21, 25, 33), in imitation of an ancient manner, lends quaintness and an antiquated air to the poem.

67. Rhyming and stressing the pronoun som is a breach of the rules of good style rare in the polished and precise diction of Rydberg.

75-76. Prose order: blott bruset av forsens fall höres helt sakta från fjärran.

85. Månen sänker sin tysta ban—a poetic ellipse; supply sig på after sänker.

I NATTEN.

11-15. A poetic vision of rare beauty, exquisitely expressed. Note the hush in the onomatopoetic line, sövd av sorlande källans sus.

KARL GUSTAV JOHAN SNOILSKY.

Ur INLEDNINGSSÅNG.

5. utöver höva—the elimination of the postpositive definite article in the archaic idiom över hövan is quite irregular and a manifest sacrifice to the law of rhyme.

15. Brenta, a river in northern Italy, whose picturesque shores, studded with villas, gardens and parks, are familiar to tourists.

17. Hesperien. Snoilsky, like the Greek poets, applies this classic name distinctly to Italy. Cf. the poem, "Neros gyllene hus," the 16th stanza of which reads:

Att sjunga vaggsång för slavar Hesperiens vind var för god, för god att sucka bland gravar, där lagern på hån blott stod.

20. In the nine stanzas here omitted the poet revels in the scenes and pleasures, the historic memories and current strife indigenous to Italian soil.

34. Note that the poet speaks in his own person throughout, not from the lips of an imaginary Muse.

DEN TJÄNANDE BRODERN.

This is one of the poems of purely democratic trend so characteristic of the literature of Sweden in the early eighties. It was written in 1882.

14. lampans ande—allusion to the genius of Aladdin's magic lamp in "Arabian Nights' Tales."

14-15. allena—tjäna, a "Stockholm rhyme," so called from the fact that the dialect of the capital discriminates none too well between the sounds of e and ä.

I PORSLINSFABRIKEN.

In this as in the foregoing poem, Snoilsky pays high tribute to the man of labor, the artisan of common utilities as against the artist creator of costly luxuries. His exaltation of labor is hardly less fervent than the apotheosis of human liberty in a large number of his poems.

ALBERT ULRIK BÅÅTH.

VINTERSTÄMNING.

10. Ett snacksällt lag—a flock of rooks disturbed at nightfall by the ringing of the vesper bell.

EN PINGSTDAGSMORGON.

This poem has its counterpart in English literature in HOOD'S Song of the Shirt.

29. Metrically, the last syllable of händerna belongs to the next line. Cf. lines 45-46 and 63-64.

BRIST.

The broken and irregular meter is quite in keeping with the plaintive note of this song, and others by Bååth, so strikingly described in lines 15-16.

OSKAR IVAR LEVERTIN.

EN GAMMAL NYÅRSVISA.

This is an old ballad modernized by Levertin, its legendary style being rather too fantastical for present-day verse.

16. Betslet är en blomsterrad—the reins, not the bit, forming a festoon of flowers, betsel (bit) is a metonym for tyglar (reins).

20. guldsmidd is here used in two senses—"gold-mounted" and "hammered out of gold."

29. Spelt was the common variety of wheat in early times. It is still grown on poor soils in Germany and Switzerland.

35. huvut, contraction of huvudet, the t representing the definite suffix, not a consonantal change.

45. livsens, archaic for livets.

FLOREZ OCH BLANZEFLOR.

This poem is based on an old medieval ballad which was translated into Swedish as early as 1312 and, together with similar versions of Ivan Lejonriddaren and Hertig Fredrik av Normandie, formed a group of ballads of chivalry called Eufemiavisorna, Queen Euphemia of Norway having caused them to be translated into the Swedish tongue. While the source of "Ivan" appears to have been a French ballad and that of "Henrik" a German one, both belonging to the Arthurian Tales, nothing is said of the origin of "Flores," except that it was "turned into rhyme." The ballad was probably based on the Norse prose saga, "Flores ok Blankiflur," and a French redaction of the same. Critics have traced the romance back to a late Greek source. The Swedish translator is thought to have used the Old Norse prose version. A modern French version, "Floire et Blanceflor" by E. Du Meril (1856) bears close relation to the Old Swedish version. (GEETE and SCHÜCK.)

5. The line gives the title of the poem in Swedish words—blomma och vitblomma.

24. Levertin's poem, as here indicated, merely hints at the full contents of the original ballad.

ITHAKA.

The argument of the poem is found in the very title. Ithaka, according to the Odyssey, was the native island of Odysseus, to which the hero of the epic, after having taken part in the Trojan War, returned only after years of reverses and vicissitudes.

6. Herakles' stoder, Gibraltar and the high rock on the opposite coast, known in classic lore as the Pillars of Hercules.

30, 32. smekning—räkning—see SNOILSKY, Den tjänande brodern, 14-15, note.

MODERSPRÅKET.

3. Fantasos' tömmar—carrying out the classic figure of Fancy as "the wingéd horse."

8. Allusion to John 1, 1-3.

9, 11. sen—vän—an extreme form of the "Stockholm rhyme," the vowels differing both in sound and in quantity.

20. The masculine epithet ledsven, in the midst of the feminine sagoförtäljerska, följeslagerska, bikterska, trösterska, drömmerska, is somewhat disconcerting.

Babylons vimmel refers to the Babel of tongues.

22, 24. stämma—hemma—Stockholm rhymes.

34-38. Entirely in keeping with the poet's confession in these lines is the recent estimate of a critic who says: "Oskar Levertin, who was not ashamed of being a Jew, although his nature in a peculiar and fruitful way combined the characteristics of his own race with those of the race which fostered him, quite often struck the Jewish chord in his verse, yet he took a purely esthetic view of the subject, treating Jewish motifs with romantic sentimentalism; at any rate, there was no distinctively Jewish mind or creative power back of the visions and songs of this occidental skeptic and art-dreamer." (OLOF RABENIUS in Ord och Bild, XXVI, 492.)

64. stämma möte ordinarily requires med or till, thus: där döden med oss stämt möte, or, där döden oss stämt till möte.

GUSTAV FRÖDING.

VALLARELÅT.

The musical quality of Fröding's verse is well exemplified in this pastoral, the mellifluous diction of which has been rarely matched in poetic literature. The Swedish Anthology of Dr. Charles Wharton Stork (American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1917) contains able renderings into English of this and numerous other gems of modern Swedish verse. The volume will be found a great aid to the student who aspires to idealistic appreciation.

2. The song goes reverberating from hill to hill until the sound is finally lost,—such is the sense of this figurative line.

17. tjärnet, irregular neuter, probably the provincial form.

JONTE OCH BRUNTE.

The vernacular words and forms interwoven in the rhymes, as tölas (9), Jonten (30), skjutgammal (38), drumlade (45), stracklade (47), add not a little to the bizarre humor of the rustic picture.

15, 17. The true colloquial use of the pronoun with its antecedent is here shown. So also in Vallarelåt, line 3.

33-35. The lines probably refer to the driver, but if he is mentally paying his respects to the old nag, the quotation which follows is a retort in kind, lending savor to the situation.

Ur STRÖVTÅG I HEMBYGDEN.

7. var mig hälsad! presents an old construction with the dative (ethical dative) which is now obsolescent. Cf. Vol. I., STAGNELITUS, Flyttfåglarna, 45, note.

17-20. See beginning of Fröding monograph.

24. Alsterns dal, cf., in monograph, Alsters bruk, the birthplace of the poet.

Ur BIBLISKA FANTASIER.

Hosiannah!

A song in imitation of old Biblical style, hence the archaisms, görer (gören), statt (stå), ärones (ärans), låter (låten).

MlN STJÄRNAS SÅNGER.

The keynote of Fröding's psychological poems is probably struck in this series of songs, forming an allegory in which the figure is consistently maintained throughout. The Star Songs undoubtedly throw light upon Fröding's philosophy of life and his personal attitude towards the Creator of life. A comparison of TegnÊér's Sång till solen (Vol. I., p. 64) and Fröding's Min stjärnas sånger yields the impression that the former is an impersonal, objective poetic pean, the latter a poet's creed.

9. av din egen art, of the same kind as yours, i.e., the sunspots.

19. så = såväl,

41 ff. A study of Fröding's mental make-up is essential to a correct understanding of the metaphysical stanzas of part IV in particular.

VERNER VON HEIDENSTAM.

DJUFARS VISA.

1. Tanta, a city in lower Egypt.

17-19. I afton kanske … att han sjunger—the att here interposed has the effect of giving the adverbial kanske its original verbal sense kan ske (as, maybe he will—it may be that he will).

32. en klase druvor, a cluster of grapes. The preposition av or med, sometimes found with such attributives, is generally dispensed with.

34. var, the colloquial form for vore.

39. trummare, regularly, trumslagare.

55. The traditional quietude of Egypt was alluded to by Tegnér in his epic romance, Axel, thus:

"… tysta som Egyptens präster begynte stjärnorna sitt tåg."

60. utan rodd och segel, i.e., without propulsion by either oars or sails.

77-78. sant blev Djufar spådd, in prose, Djufar blev sannspådd, Djufar told the truth.

Ur ENSAMHETENS TANKAR.

4-5. The poet's mode of expression in these lines has been subjected to much comment and adverse criticism, many characterizing it as too arbitrary a departure from established linguistic usage. The grammatical Swedish of it would be: jag längtar TILL marken, jag längtar TILL stenarna, där SOM barn jag lekt.

PILGRIMENS JULSÅNG.

Headed "Hemkomsten" this poem forms the introduction to Part III of Hans Alienus, which bears the same general title. In Hans Alienus, the chief character, bearing that name, roams about Europe and the Orient in the guise of a friar. There is no unity or sequence in point of time, the pilgrim visiting the pope in the Vatican, Pontius Pilate in Jerusalem, Sardanapalus in ancient Ninive, and so on, then returning to modern Sweden to spend his last days. This oddly fantastical romance serves as the vehicle for Heidenstam's idealistic quest of beauty and his philosophy of life—a somewhat immature and immoderate Epicureanism. The latter part of this story of mingled fact and fiction is symbolical of the poet's return from foreign parts to his native soil. As events have gone in Heidenstam's literary career, it foreshadowed his return from extravagant Oriental dreams to purely Northern ideals.

6. In Sverige, the i is slurred. Cf. the corresponding rhyme.

25-30. A renunciation of the ascetic and religious ideals supposed to go with the friar's garb.

51. kåpans musselskal, reference to the shells with which the cloak of the friar Hans Alienus was ornamented. He is represented as a carver of mother of pearl and other ornaments from shells.

103. ni nå for I nån (ni, second person sg., in polite address; nå, first or third person pl.), a colloquialism peculiar to the most recent writers, here followed shortly (line 107) by the regular form kallen I, where consistency would have required kalla ni.

120. vinkande refers to frukter, hence: fruits that beckon and stir a desire in my blood.

ÅKALLAN OCH LÖFTE.

The title has reference to an ancient Norse custom of invoking the gods when making solemn promise to achieve some great deed. Such promises, usually made at public feasts, were solemnized with the draining of the beaker of Brage (ON bragafull), in honor of the god of poetry and eloquence. It will be noticed that the poem in its entirety is an invocation and an invective, the pledge being a negligible element slightly traceable only in the first stanza. This poem closes a collection of poems under the general title, "Ett folk".

17. Det är bättre (att) av en hämnare nås.

ERIK AXEL KARLFELDT.

INTET ÄR SOM VÄNTANSTIDER.

This little poem holds a place alongside of Fröding's Vallarelåt as one of the sweetest lyrics of recent Swedish verse. Each writer has evinced, in his own way, a mastery of diction rarely equaled. Karlfeldt excels in the subtly sentimental strain.

UPPBROTT.

4. Avesta fors—this locates the scene of the poem near the old copper works at the great and little falls (Storforsen and Lillforsen) in Dalälven, the main river flowing through the poet's native province of Dalarna (Dalecarlia). The old works were recently replaced by a large steel plant, iron ore being also abundant in this old copper region. Cf. line 6, hällarnas järn.

15. As indicated here and in the title, this is a lyrical farewell to the poet's native scenes.

22. stenen—a monument commemorating the battle of Brunnbäck (also written Brunbäck). Here the peasant army of Gustav Vasa in 1521 gained their first victory over the Danish forces of King Christian sent from Stockholm under command of Gustav Trolle to put down the movement for Swedish independence. The victory was celebrated in a ballad (Dalvisan) which says:

Så körde vi jutar (Danes)i Brunbäcks älv, så vattnet dem porlade om. Vi sörjde däröver, att Kristian själv ej där tillika omkom.

JUNGFRU MARIA.

This is a selection from a group of poems, entitled Dalmålningar, utlagda på rim (Dalecarlian Paintings Interpreted in Rhyme), in which Karlfeldt describes old paintings in the churches of his native province with all the originality and quaintness that characterized these mural depictions by anonymous country artists.

1-4 form the introduction to the poem, the body of which is a direct address to the Virgin.

10. vit och lutad går has the force of a personification of the moon as an old man, white-haired and stooping, though the simile in line 9 has no such comparison in view, bågig there serving to describe the arched forehead.

12. akleja, a modification of the Latin Aquilegia, columbine.

18. The progressive mood is often thus expressed in questions by an interposed verb, like gå, stå, sitta, between the principal verb and its object, where English requires an adverbial clause in addition to the progressive form. Thus, vad sitter du och tänker på—what are you thinking of (as you are sitting there)? The sense of the line in the text is, what are you pondering on, while walking thus alone?

26. den slående björnen, in prose usually slagbjörnen, the large, man-eating bear.

33. tiljan, in apposition with strålen (line 30).

VINTERHÄLSNING.

3. Apoll, irregular form of Apollo.

5-6. The incongruous combination nordanvinden—eld och läge has the force of an oxymoron.

7. Cupid, regularly written Cupido or Kupido.

10. sexton grindar, the sixteen points of the compass familiar to navigators.

29. Hövding, ryck an—the North Wind here, as throughout, personifies the spirit and genius of the North, manifested in manhood and honor (lines 13-14), power and beauty (31-32), song and action (28, 34-36).