Ibsen's poems

Omtale

Ibsen wrote a considerable amount of non-dramatic poetry. In 1871 he took the trouble to make a careful selection out of the scattered pieces that he had published and reassembled; he believed the resultant volume, Poems, would contribute to an understanding of his development as a poet. This volume, with a few later additions, and a second anthology, Selected poems, can reasonably be taken to contain between them those poems that Ibsen was content to be remembered by. Certainly they proved a different focus on the writer we know, supplying the directly personal self-expression that the dramatist was so careful in his plays. Yet this material has so far not been accessible to the English-reading public. This book accordingly supplies this want by providing the general public that reads Ibsen's plays in English with a similar opportunity of reading his poems. John Northam's versions represent a pioneering and poetic effort of great consequence.