Jens Baggesen

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Jens Baggesen
Jens Baggesen, pastel by Christian Horneman made during a visit to Copenhagen in 1806 from Paris where Baggesen lived at the time
Jens Baggesen, pastel by Christian Horneman made during a visit to Copenhagen in 1806 from Paris where Baggesen lived at the time
BornJens Immanuel Baggesen
(1764-02-15)15 February 1764
Korsør, Denmark
Died3 October 1826(1826-10-03) (aged 62)
Hamburg, German Confederation
OccupationPoet
NationalityDanish
Literary movementRomanticism
Notable worksLabyrinten
"Da Jeg Var Lille"
Signature

Jens Immanuel Baggesen

librettist, critic
, and comic writer.

Life

"Baggesen's Oak" (Baggesens Eg) at Christianssæde manor on Lolland in Denmark, which inspired the poet's Landforvandlingen
Baggesen's grave at Eichhof Cemetery in Kiel, Germany.

Baggesen was born at

island of Zealand on February 15, 1764. His parents were very poor, and he was sent to copy documents at the office of the clerk of Hornsherred[citation needed] District before he was twelve. He was a melancholy, feeble child, and he attempted suicide more than once. By dint of indomitable perseverance, he managed to gain an education; in 1782, he entered the University of Copenhagen.[2]

His first work—a verse Comical Tales broadly similar to the later Broad Grins of

France, and Switzerland.[2]

In 1790, he married at Bern and began to write in German. He published his next poem Alpenlied ("Alpine Song") in that language, but brought the Danish Labyrinten ("Labyrinth") as a peace offering upon his return to Denmark in the winter. It was received with unbounded homage. Over the next twenty years, he published volumes alternately in Danish and German and wandered across northern Europe before settling principally in Paris. His most important German work during this period was the 1803 idyllic hexameter epic called Parthenais.[2]

Upon his 1806 visit to

Oehlenschläger hailed as the great poet of the day and his own popularity on the wane. He then stayed, engaging in one abusive literary feud after another, most with the underlying issue that Baggesen was determined not to allow Oehlenschläger to be considered a greater poet than himself. He finally left for Paris in 1820, where he lost his second wife and youngest child in 1822. Suffering a period of imprisonment for his debts, he fell at last into a hopeless melancholy madness. Having slightly recovered, he determined to see Denmark once more, but died en route at the Freemasons' hospital in Hamburg on October 3, 1826. He was buried at Kiel.[2]

Legacy

Baggesen's many-sided talents achieved success in all forms of writing, but his

Oehlenschläger. His greatest success, however, has proven to be the simple song Da Jeg Var Lille[3] ("There Was a Time when I Was Very Little")[4] which was known by heart among Danes a century after his death. It outlived all of his epics.[2]

There is a statue of Baggesen on Havnepladsen in Korsør, unveiled on 6 May 1906 by Professor Vilhelm Andersen. The local Best Western hotel is also named after him.

References

  1. ^ Also formerly written as Jens Emmanuel Baggesen.(Gosse 1911, p. 200)
  2. ^
    Gosse, Edmund William (1911). "Baggesen, Jens Immanuel". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica
    . Vol. 3 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 200.
  3. ^ Baggesen, Jens (1801), "Da jeg var lille", Samtlige Værker, Vol. I (in Danish), archived from the original on 2016-03-04
  4. ^ "There Was a Time when I Was Very Little", Library of the World's Best Literature

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jens Baggesen.
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