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INTRODUCTION xv
by all. If lyrical means only melodious, “singable,” they
possess high poetic value and distinction. In a unique de-
gree they have inspired composers of music to pour out
their strains. Whena Scandinavian reads Bjérnson’s poems,
his ears ring with the familiar melodies into which they
have almost sung themselves.
. Here is not the place for technical analysis of the ex-
ternal poetic forms. A cursory inspection will show that
Bjornson’s are wonderfully varied, and that the same form
is seldom, if ever, precisely duplicated. In rhythm and
alliteration, rhyme sequence and the grouping of lines
into stanzas, the form in each case seems to be determined
by the content, naturally, spontaneously. Yet for one
who has intimately studied these verses until his mind
and heart vibrate responsively, the words of all have an.
indefinable melody of their own, as it were, one domi-
nant melody, distinctly Bjornsonian. This unity in variety,
spontaneous and characteristic, is not found in the earlier
poems not included in this volume. So far as is known,
Bjornson’s first printed poem appeared in a newspaper in
1852. It and other youthful rhymes of that time extant
in manuscript, and still others as late as 1854, are interest-
ing by reason of their contrast with his later manner; the
verse-form has nothing personal, the melodies are those of
older poets. It is in the lyrics of Synnive Solbakken, written
in 1857 or just before, that Bjérnson for the first time
sings in his own forms his own melody.
Style and diction are the determining factors in the
poetic form of lyric verse, along with the perhaps indis-
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