Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/285

Rh objections have been raised against this grand poetical composition, the justice of which objections cannot well be disputed. Thus the whole plan of the poem, the development of "Adam Homo" presented to the reader as a man naturally endowed with good parts and gradually dwindling down into a contemptible wretch, cannot but make a painful and accordingly unæsthetic impression, which gives way to one of unalloyed comicalness only when the hero, after dismissing all his ideals, with a narrow-minded vulgarity becomes satisfied with empty glamour. This is, in fact, the weak point of the poem. The moral indignation with which the poet was filled made him forget in a higher degree than is generally advisable, the important requisite of every poetical work, namely, that it should give pleasure and intellectual recreation. In compensation for this he has drawn a picture of human weakness in all its littleness, with a truthfulness so striking and genuine in many of the details, that no one can read this remarkable work without being compelled, in many ways, to recognize himself. Paludan-Müller knows the human soul so well, and he has succeeded so admirably in creating a typical man of our time, that no sincere reader is able to say: "I thank Thee, O Lord, that I am not like that sinner." Not one of us can say that. The poet brandishes his rod and brings it down without mercy. His "Adam Homo" becomes privy councillor, receives decorations from potentates, and becomes director of a charitable institution for fallen women, while the poor girl whom he has seduced goes to ruin. The poet mercilessly throws aside the screen behind which the hero would fain conceal his moral hideousness, even from his own self, and gives us a most painful picture of humanity, such as it is generally to be found in real life. His love, his enthusiasm for what is good and true, put the scourge into his hand, and the faithfulness with which he constantly keeps his ideal in bold relief, gives a terrible effect to his blows. Rarely has any poem welled forth from such depths of sincere pain and grief as "Adam Homo."