And the land where the true hearts dwell.

Reprinted by permission of the American Publishers'
Corporation, Publishers.

HOLGER DRACHMANN

(1846-)

[Illustration: HOLGER DRACHMANN]

Holger Drachmann, born in Copenhagen October 9th, 1846, belongs to the
writers characterized by Georg Brandes as "the men of the new era."

Danish literature had stood high during the first half of the
nineteenth century. In 1850 Oehlenschlaeger died. In 1870 there was
practically no Danish literature. The reason for this may have been
that after the new political life of 1848-9 and the granting of the
Danish Constitution, politics absorbed all young talent, and men of
literary tastes put themselves at the service of the daily press.

In 1872 Georg Brandes gave his lectures on 'Main Currents in the
Literature of the Nineteenth Century' at the University of Copenhagen.
That same year Drachmann published his first collection of 'Poems,'
and so began his extraordinary productivity of poems, dramas, and
novels. Of these, his lyric poems are undoubtedly of the greatest
value. His is a distinctly lyric temperament. The new school had
chosen for its guide Brandes's teaching that "Literature, to be of
significance, should discuss problems." In view of this fact it is
somewhat hard to understand why Drachmann should be called a man of
the new era. He never discusses problems. He always gives himself up
unreservedly to the subject which at that special moment claims his
sympathy. Taken as a whole, therefore, his writings present a certain
inconsistency. He has shown himself alternately as socialist and
royalist, realist and romanticist, freethinker and believer,
cosmopolitan and national, according to the lyric enthusiasm of the
moment. Independent of these changes, the one thing to be admired and
enjoyed is his lyric feeling and the often exquisite form in which he
presents it. His larger compositions, novels, and dramas do not show
the same power over his subject.

If Drachmann discusses any problem, it is the problem Drachmann. He
does this sometimes with what Brandes calls "a light and joking
self-irony," in a most sympathetic way. Brandes quotes one of
Drachmann's early stories, where it is said of the hero:--"His name
was really Palnatoke Olsen; a continually repeated discord of two
tones, as he used to say." Olsen is one of the most commonplace Danish
names. Palnatoke is the name of one of the fiercest warriors of
hea