Vilhelm Ekelund

Vilhelm Ekelund Poems

Vilhelm Ekelund Biography

Vilhelm Ekelund (October 14, 1880 – September 3, 1949) was a Swedish poet. The works of Ekelund were influenced by Friedrich Hölderlin, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Emanuel Swedenborg. His early career was lyrical, and though not widely recognized at the time, his poetic work, almost wholly produced in the first decade of the century, became a formative influence on many later Swedish poets. His grasp of rhythmic and musical qualities in verse and his concentrated imagery propelled his poetry into increasingly ambitious forms, soon moving from bound to free verse, and making it a vital model for later writers such as Karin Boye, Erik Lindegren, Gunnar Björling and others. From 1907, after a passionate love affair with Amelie Posse and an increasing conviction that poetry was an unsatisfactory, vain medium, he turned away from poems and devoted himself to essays and aphoristic prose in a highly personal and sometimes near impenetrable style.)

The Best Poem Of Vilhelm Ekelund

Då Voro Bokarna Ljusa

Då voro bokarna ljusa, då var ån av
simmande vit ranunkels öar sållad,
ljus sin krona häggen gungade här där gosse jag vandrat—

Tyst det regnar. Himlen hänger lågt på
glesa kronor. En vissling; tåget sätter
åter i gång. Mot sakta mörknande kväll jag färdas vänlös.

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