Poetry
Ur svalans loggbok
Not translated into English
Peter Sandelin · 1951
Synopsis
Short poems in which the experience of nature serves as a starting point for concentrated meditations: the words try to grasp movements of the soul. The one who writes keeps there the stance of an observer, subjective and full of impressions, and nature can appear in them as a solitary refuge. The title gives the form of the book, that of a logbook.
Context
It appeared with Schildt in 1951, a year before its author passed his school-leaving examination. From this beginning the impressionist technique shows itself, inherited from Gunnar Björling, which remained the mark of its author, who belonged to the generation that carried on the modernism of Södergran, Diktonius, Björling and Enckell. Thomas Warburton noted how well this poetry of impression and of looking suited the post-war period, weary of ideologies. The book opens a body of work of twenty-five volumes, whose covers were always drawn by the author.
Who it is for
A slim collection, in Swedish; very short texts, in which the blank page counts as much as the words.
Prizes and reception
A first book that its author echoed, sixty years later, in the cover of his last collection.