Life and Work
Kristensen was born in London to Danish parents, but grew up in Copenhagen and was educated at the University of Copenhagen.
Kristensen is considered one of the most colourful poets of his generation. His two collections of poems Fribytterdrømme (1920, "Freebooter Dreams") and Mirakler (1922, "Miracles") are classics of Danish expressionism, marked by revolutionary artistic enthusiasm and restlessness. Påfuglefjeren (1922, "The Peacock Feather") which is inspired by a journey to China, is deeper and more sombre, especially the poem Henrettelsen ("The Execution") that is depicting a man's intense powers of observation just before he is beheaded, which can be considered a modernist manifesto. The contemporary novel Livets Arabesk (1921 – "The Arabesque of Life") is a revolutionary futuristic fantasy in expressionist form.
In 1930 he published perhaps his most well-known work, the novel Hærværk (literally: Vandalism, published in English as Havoc in 1968). Hærværk is the story of Danish journalist Ole Jastrau who is driven to self-destruction by drinking himself to death. Apart from its presumed autobiographical character, it probably reflects the intellectual, political and personal crises of many writers and artists between the World Wars. A poem from this novel, Angst ("Fear"), with its fascination with disaster, has become a classic. The book is also considered one of the best literary Danish-language depictions of alcoholism.
During the 1930s, Kristensen concentrated on commemorative poems, of which he was a master – many are found in Mod den yderste Rand (1936, "Against the furthest Edge") and Digte i Døgnet (1940, "Poems a Day"). A final collection of poems Den sidste Lygte (1954, "The last Lamp") parades the themes of his writings.
Besides being a writer of fiction, Kristensen was a sharp and outstanding critic, and for thirty years he worked as a reviewer, mostly at the radical-liberal daily Politiken. As a critic he was lauded for his ability to enter into the spirit of his subject. He also wrote many collections of essays and travel books − most famously En Kavaler i Spanien (1927, "A Gentleman in Spain").
Read more about this topic: Tom Kristensen (poet)
Famous quotes containing the words life and/or work:
“What is art,
But life upon the larger scale, the higher,
When, graduating up in a spiral line
Of still expanding and ascending gyres,
It pushes toward the intense significance
Of all things, hungry for the Infinite?
Art’s life,—and where we live, we suffer and toil.”
—Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861)
“There is no mystery in a looking glass until someone looks into it. Then, though it remains the same glass, it presents a different face to each man who holds it in front of him. The same is true of a work of art. It has no proper existence as art until someone is reflected in it—and no two will ever be reflected in the same way. However much we all see in common in such a work, at the center we behold a fragment of our own soul, and the greater the art the greater the fragment.”
—Harold C. Goddard (1878–1950)