KARL FREDRIK

DAHLGREN (1791-1844)  , Swedish poet, was born at Stensbruk in Ostergotland on the loth of June 1791 . At a time when literary partisanship ran high in Sweden, and the writers divided themselves into " Goths " and " Phosphorists," Dahlgren made himself indispensable to the Phosphorists by his polemical activity . In the mock-heroic poem of Markalls somnlosa natter (Markall's Sleepless Nights), in which the Phosphorists ridiculed the academician Per Adam Wallmark and others, Dahlgren, who was a genuine humorist, took a prominent part . In 5825 he published Babels Torn (The Tower of Babel), a satire, and a comedy, Argus in Olympen; and in 1828 two volumes of poems . In 1829 he was appointed to an ecclesiastical post in Stockholm, which he held until his death . In a series of odes and dithyrambic pieces, entitled Mollbergs Epistlar (1819, 1820), he strove to emulate the wonderful lyric genius of K . M . Gellman, of whom he was a student and follower . From 1825 to 1827 he edited a critical journal entitled Kometen (The Comet), and in company with Almgvist he founded the Manhemsforbund, a short-lived society of agricultural socialists . In 1834 he collected his poems in one volume; and in 1837 appeared his last book, Angbdts-Sdnger (Steamboat Songs) . On the 1st of May 1844 he died at Stockholm . Dahlgren is one of the best humorous writers that Sweden has produced; but he was perhaps at his best in realistic and idyllic description .

His little poem of Zephyr and the Girl, which is to be found in every selection from Swedish

poetry, is a good example of his sensuous and ornamented style . His works were collected and published after his death by A . J .