Page:Von Heidenstam - Sweden's laureate, selected poems of Verner von Heidenstam (1919).djvu/25

 style ranked their author as high in prose as he already stood in poetry. The most popular of his prose works is Karolinerna, a group of tales which depict the heroism of the Swedish people under Charles XII.

His third poetical volume, New Poems, appeared in 1915. This contains a majority of the lyrics for which he is most beloved, which have made his name nearly synonymous with Sweden in the hearts of his five and a half million compatriots. These poems are like a trumpet-call to his people, a summons to awake and renew in the present the glories of the past. Heidenstam's former doubts and struggles are largely replaced by a calm dignity of outlook. The self-centered man has forgotten his despondency by merging himself into the larger soul of his country. He sings:

To those familiar with his claims to the honor, it came as no surprise that in 1916 Heidenstam was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Where indeed is there in Europe today a writer of more sincerity and inborn originality? To be sure he is by no means always easy to follow. His style is compressed and abrupt. With his intense, imaginative,