Johan Henric Kellgren
Johan Henric Kellgren (1 December 1751 – 20 April 1795) was a Swedish poet and critic.
Biography
He was born at Floby in Västergötland (now part of Falköping Municipality, Västra Götaland County). He studied at the Royal Academy of Turku, and already had some reputation as a poet when he became a "docent" in aesthetics at the school in 1774.
Three years later he moved to
He died at Stockholm. Kellgren was never married, but was at one point the lover of the prima donna
Works
His strong
From about 1788 a graver feeling pervades Kellgren's verses, owing partly to the influence of Lessing and Goethe, but probably more directly due to his controversy with Thorild. Of his minor poems written before that date the most important are the charming spring-song Vinterns valde lyktar, and the satirical Mina Löjen, an attack on the songwriter Carl Michael Bellman, and Man äger ej snille för det man är galen. The best productions of what is called his later period are the satire Ljusets fiender, the comic poem Dumboms lefverne, the warmly patriotic Kantat d. 1. Jan. 1789, the ode Till Kristina, the fragment Sigwart och Hilma, and the beautiful song Nya skapelsen, both in thought and form the finest of his works.
Among his lyrics are the choicest fruits of the Gustavian age of Swedish letters. His earlier efforts, indeed, express the superficial doubt and pert frivolousness characteristic of his time; but in the works of his riper years he is no mere "poet of pleasure," as Thorild contemptuously styled him, but a worthy exponent of earnest moral feeling and wise human sympathies in felicitous and melodious verse.
Editions
His Samlade skrifter ("Collected works", 3 vols., 1796; a later edition, 1884-1885) were revised by himself. His correspondence with
See also
References
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Kellgren, Johan Henrik". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. This work in turn cites:
- Wieselgren, Sveriges sköna litteratur (1833-1849)
- Atterbom, Svenska siare och skalder (1841-1855)
- Carl Wilhelm Böttiger in Transactions of the Swedish Academy, xlv. 107 seq. (1870)
- Gustaf Ljunggren, Kellgren, Leopold, och Thorild (1873)
- Gustaf Ljunggren, Svenska vitterhetens häfder (1877)
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
Further reading
- Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. XIV (9th ed.). 1882. p. 29. .
- Wikidata Q113384733