Page:Von Heidenstam - Sweden's laureate, selected poems of Verner von Heidenstam (1919).djvu/29

 but to his living fellow-men that they may forgive him as he forgives them. Above all we learn here that through all his wanderings the deepest passion of Heidenstam's heart was for Sweden, especially because of its early associations,

He longs to be worthy of his heritage, to give his life for some sacred cause. He believes it is only in moments of great exaltation that we really live.

In the Poems, which appeared seven years later, the development of the poet is extremely marked. We find the same sincere, penetrative self-analysis as before, but it is a far larger self that Heidenstam now has to offer. He has found his great cause, has made himself a part of his country, its past glories and its present problems. It is most characteristic that, with all his devotion to his native district, he describes both landscape and people in the most unflinching terms.

Heidenstam sees his country as it is but does not love one whit the less for seeing it so veraciously.

Besides descriptive and reflective pieces, the Poems