Poetry
Digte
Not translated into English
Holger Drachmann · 1872
Opening lines
Og hun var min. Her i de stærke Arme
Jeg krysted hende ung og spæd og fin,
Og alting: Læbens Kys og Kindens Varme
Og Silkelokkens Snoning hvisked: Din.
And she was mine. Here in my strong arms
I pressed her, young and slight and fine,
And everything, the kiss of the lips, the warmth of the cheek
And the twist of the silken curl, whispered: Yours.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from tekster.kb.dk
Synopsis
First collection by a young marine painter, uneven according to its commentators: songs, role poems, more tender pieces. In the middle, texts brought back from a stay in London let something else be heard: in “Socialistes anglais”, the great working-class city rumbles beneath a sky reddened by the factories, and the last stanza evokes the Paris Commune; “King Mob” and a poem dated 28 November 1871 continue in the same vein.
Context
The collection appeared in the autumn of 1872 with Andr. Schou, the same year as a volume of stories, dedicated “to my friend Georg Brandes”, who had noticed its author's articles on marine painting. Some pieces had appeared in the press under the pseudonym Marc Cole. The newest were written in London in 1871, where the young man, lodged in a carpenter's workshop, mixed with exiled Communards; these verses bring the social question into Danish poetry. A reissue marks the poet's fiftieth birthday in 1896.
Who it is for
An uneven collection, in which songs sit alongside social pieces. No French or English translation; the Danish title simply means poems.
Prizes and reception
His debut as a poet; “English Socialists” has remained one of his best-known texts.
Sources for this page 9
The pages consulted to check this page.