Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/367

Rh (1731-85) gained his reputation chiefly by the poem "Atis och Camilla," the best poetical production of this period. In this excellent idyl there prevails a pure, gentle sentiment, combined with a wonderfully graphic fancy, and in form the poem is exceedingly fine. His shorter poems also "Sommarquäde" (summer song), etc., are the fruits of genuine poetic talent. (1731-1808) confined himself more closely to the accepted rules of poetry, and hence his compositions are cold and dry; only in unguarded moments his talent now and then unconsciously breaks through the rigid form. On account of the didactic element of which he was especially fond, he exercised a marked influence on the literature of his epoch, but he was himself unable to keep pace with its progress. His great heroic poem "Tåget öfver Bält," an imitation of Voltaire's Henriade, describing the celebrated march of Charles X across the ice from Jutland to Zealand, is so rigid and so full of allegories that even on its first appearance it was received with considerable indifference. His fables and lyric poems are better, though they are all injured by a moralizing tendency, and the same may be said of his didactic poem "Årstiderna" (the seasons). His efforts in the dramatic field were not successful, nor could success be expected from the manner in which his talent had been developed.

(1733-1805) had, through his acquaintance with the poetry then flourishing in Germany, gained a more correct knowledge of the nature of the poetic art, and sought to promote it in Sweden by the foundation of the society "Vitterlek" (belles lettres). His poems give evidence of a correct taste, but the latter is manifested in a manner too weak and indistinct to give it any decided influence on literature. Deserving of mention are the ode "Öfver motgång" (on adversity) and the elegy "Den