Page:History of the Literature of the Scandinavian North.djvu/395

Rh kail's sleepless nights), by which they meant to produce the moral ruin of the academician Wallmark, the press representative of his own party, but they were not successful. Atterbom's style showed great talent and strong faith in the correctness of the cause he defended, but on the other hand, it evinced great insolence and bitterness, and sometimes it was not free from rudeness. He accordingly provoked a general feeling of displeasure, and this the more, since Atterbom's own works as well as those of the romanticists in general were not above criticism. They were frequently bombastic and obscure; they gave their imagination loose reins and paid no attention to reality and its claims.

From 1817 to 1819 Atterbom lived abroad for the benefit of his health, and on his return he became prince Oscar's instructor in German. Later he was made professor of philosophy in Upsala, a position afterward exchanged for the chair of æsthetics. He took no more part in literary conflicts that were still raging, and his poetical industry henceforth put forth its choicest flowers. His most remarkable productions are, the dramatized fairy-tales "Lyksalighetens Ö" (the isle of bliss), and "Fogel Blå" (blue-bird), the latter a fragment. In their general character they remind us of Tieck. Prom a dramatic stand-point they are very unsatisfactory. The delineation of character is obscure and incomplete and the action is incessantly interrupted by lyric episodes, the relation of which to the drama is by no means evident. But these numerous lyric vagaries which are partly fantastic descriptions painted with glowing colors, and partly outbursts of passion, are, when considered separately, very beautiful. Furthermore, the poem, in its continual change from the most artistic and complex versification to the simple style of the popular ballad, is the work of the master. Atterbom is unquestionably one of Sweden's greatest lyric poets. But in him, too, we find the worst faults and weaknesses peculiar to the romantic school. Allegory and symbolism are altogether too prominent at the sacrifice of poetic effect.