Bertel Johan Sebastian, Baron Gripenberg

Bertel Johan Sebastian, Baron Gripenberg (born Sept. 10, 1878, St. Petersburg, Russia—died May 6, 1947, Sävsjö, Swed.) was one of the foremost Finnish poets who wrote in Swedish.

Gripenberg studied law at the University of Helsinki, became a freelance writer, and spent the last years of his life on his estate at Sääksmäki in southwestern Finland. His first collection, Dikter (1903; “Poems”), attracted attention for its richness of colour and sensualism. This and other early collections, of which the most important are Gallergrinden (1905; “The Iron Gate”) and Svarta sonetter (1908; “Black Sonnets”), show his proud individualism, love of beauty, and skillful handling of the sonnet form. He gradually found in the landscape of central Finland a solace for the feelings of loneliness and anger so apparent in Svarta sonetter. The collections Drivsnö (1909; “Loose Snow”), Aftnar i Tavastland (1911; “Evenings in Tavastland”), Skuggspel (1912; “A Play of Shadows”), and Spillror (1917; “Broken Bits”) include more tranquil contemplative poetry, often dwelling on the idea of death. Later collections contain some fine patriotic poems (e.g., on the 1918 war of independence). In some of his works, Gripenberg degenerates into theatrical attitudes and empty pathos. In his last collections, Vid gränsen (1930; “On the Border”), Livets eko (1932; “The Echo of Life”), and Sista ronden (1941; “The Last Rounds”), the tone is again calmer and more sombre. He also published some prose works, including his memoirs, Det var de tiderna (1943; “Those Were the Times”), and translated into Swedish the Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde (whose influence is apparent in his own works) and works by the British fiction writer Robert Louis Stevenson and the American poet Edgar Lee Masters.