CLAUSSEN, SOPHUS

(1865-1931)

   A Danish poet, Claussen was independently wealthy and was able to devote himself entirely to his artistic pursuits. He first studied law, then became a journalist for several provincial papers, and he spent time in France and Italy. His travel book Antonius i Paris (1896; Antonius in Paris) tells about his encounter with the French symbolists. Claussen affiliated with the circle around Johannes Jørgensen's periodical Taarnet and became an apologist for a poetic practice that renounced naturalist dogma in favor of a more personal and less social conception of poetry. In Danish literary history Claussen stands as one of the most important forerunners of modernism.

   Claussen's first poetry collection, Naturbørn (1887; Children of Nature), spoke in favor of sexual liberation. His second book, Pilefløjter (1899; Willow Whistles), on the other hand, was far removed from the social concerns of the 1880s; the poems in it were highly personal, ironic, and dealt with private erotic themes. The poems in Djævlerier (1904; Devilries) were written against the background of Claussen's travels, and some of them show influences from Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867). Two representative titles are "Trappen til Helvede" (The Stairs to Hell) and "Sorte Blomst" (Black Flower); the latter portrays a prostitute. Later collections include Danske Vers (1912; Danish Verses) and Heroica (1925), which contains the prescient "Atomernes Oprør" (The Revolt of the Atoms), with images suggestive of nuclear war.