In a unique degree they have inspired composers of music to pour out
their strains. When a Scandinavian reads Bj?rnson's poems, his ears
ring with the familiar melodies into which they have almost sung
themselves.
Here is not the place for technical analysis of the external poetic
forms. A cursory inspection will show that Bj?rnson's are wonderfully
varied, and that the same form is seldom, if ever, precisely duplicated.
In rhythm and alliteration, rhyme sequence and the grouping of lines into
stanzas, the form in each case seems to be determined by the content,
naturally, spontaneously. Yet for one who has intimately studied these
verses until his mind and heart vibrate responsively, the words of all
have an indefinable melody of their own, as it were, one dominant melody,
distinctly Bj?rnsonian. This unity in variety, spontaneous and
characteristic, is not found in the earlier poems not included in this
volume. So far as is known, Bj?rnson's first printed poem appeared in a
newspaper in 1852. It and other youthful rhymes of that time extant in
manuscript, and still others as late as 1854, are interesting by reason
of their contrast with his later manner; the verse-form has nothing
personal, the melodies are those of older poets. It is in the lyrics
of _Synn?ve Solbakken_, written in 1857 or just before, that Bj?rnson
for the first time sings in his own forms his own melody.
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