Such purely personal poems are then also relatively rare. Some of
them, however, are most beautiful and deeply moving. Generally he
frees himself in an epic or dramatic way from subjective introspection;
he projects his feeling into another personality or sends it forth
in choral song in terms of "we" and "our." The moods he does express
more directly for himself are vague youthful longing for the great
and the instant, joyous trustfulness even in adversity and under
criticism, love of parents, wife, family, and friends, faith in the
future and in the power of the good to prevail.
By far the largest number of the _Poems and Songs_ have as their
subject patriotism in the broadest sense, a theme at once simple and
complex. It is in them that the skald and chieftain so typically
blend in one. Of this group the influence has been widest and
deepest. In his oration at the unveiling of the statue of Wergeland
in Christiania, Bj?rnson spoke of him and of Norway's constitution
as growing up together; with reference to this it has been maintained
that we have still greater right to say that Bj?rnson and Norway's
full freedom and independence grew up together. The truth of the
statement is very largely due to Bj?rnson's patriotic poems. Through
them the poet-prophet interpreted for his nation the historic past
and the evolving present, and forecast the future.
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