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xxii INTRODUCTION
external nature. Bjornson’s relation to nature is indeed
more intimate than that of any other Norwegian writer
of his time, but here also he is epic and dramatic rather
than subjectively lyrical. He sees and hears through what
is external, and his feeling for and with nature is but a
profounder looking into the soul of his nation or the inner
life of other human beings. For him Norway’s scenery is
filled with the glory of the nation’s past, the promise of
its future, or the needs of the present. The poems that
contain nature descriptions are primarily patriotic. In the
national hymn Yes, We Love, it is the nation, its history and
its future, which with the land towers as a whole before
his vision; in Romsdal the scenery frames the people, their
character and life. More personal poems, as To Molde or
A Meeting, are not merely descriptive; in the former child-
hood’s memories and the love of friends fill the scene,
while in the latter the freshly and tenderly drawn snow-
landscape is but the setting for a vivid picture of a deceased
friend,
The contents of this volume befit the verse-form, as
if each were made by and for the other. The subjects are
simple, large, weighty; the form is compact, strong, sug-
gestive. Bjornson is distinctly not subjectively lyrical, but
has a place in the first rank “as a choral lyric poet and
as an epic lyric poet.” (Collin.) Georg Brandes wrote of
him many years ago: “In few [fields] has he put forth
anything so individual, unforgettable, imperishable, as in
the lyric field.”
a ee,
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