Poetry
Norges Dæmring
Not translated into English
Johan Sebastian Welhaven · 1834
Synopsis
The book presents itself as a polemical poem: a series of sonnets addressed to the author's contemporaries, whom he reproaches for their coarseness and for a nationalism he judges excessive. He sets inherited culture, Danish culture included, against the enthusiasm of the young national movement, which in his view breaks the continuity of an evolution. The sonnets, mocking in tone, at the same time set out the poet's aesthetic doctrine, devoted to form and unity.
Context
The book appeared in 1834 under the full title of Norges Dæmring, poème polémique. It came after a poem of 1830 and a study of 1832 against Wergeland's poetry, and turned the quarrel between “patriots” and “intelligents” into a public affair, debated in the press: the Morgenbladet was still publishing a discussion of it in 1835. Britannica counts it among the author's two best-known works, and it is read as the statement of his aesthetic credo.
Who it is for
Sonnets in the Danish of the period, without translation, which assumes knowledge of the literary quarrel of the time.
Prizes and reception
The collection by which its author braved the anger of the nationalists, and one of his two most cited works.
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