Page:Von Heidenstam - Sweden's laureate, selected poems of Verner von Heidenstam (1919).djvu/33

 tion and tolerance. From the vantage-ground of maturity Heidenstam can look back and behold where

He can in imagination look down at the world after his death and perceive that

That the man is not other than his work is borne witness to by all who know him. He is over six feet in height and powerfully built, with strongly-marked aquiline features. A man who never valued fame for its own sake, he is in the least possible danger of being weakened by success. Generous to all but himself, he is in especial the patron of all promising literary aspirants.

Little has been said of Heidenstam's poetic style except that it is intense, colorful, and abrupt. In a sense Heidenstam at first seems to have no style, for he is so swept along by the current of compelling inspiration that he has little time to stop for decorative embellishment. He is one of the most compressed of poets; often indeed he runs the risk of being too compressed. And yet, as said before, he