and love of humanity. This large and simple Christian art of life,
in distinction from the dogmas of the Church, he early sung in
lines which sound no less true to the keynote of his later years:

Love thy neighbor, to Christ be leal!
Crush him never with iron-heel,
Though in the dust he's lying!
All the living responsive await
Love with power to recreate,
Needing alone the trying.

II

The quantity, then, of Björnson's short poems is small. Their
intrinsic worth is great. Their influence in Norway has been broad
and deep, they are known and loved by all. If lyrical means only
melodious, "singable," they possess high poetic value and distinction.
In a unique degree they have inspired composers of music to pour out
their strains. When a Scandinavian reads Björnson's poems, his ears
ring with the familiar melodies into which they have almost sung
themselves.

Here is not the place for technical analysis of the external poetic
forms. A cursory inspection will show that Björnson's are wonderfully
varied, and that the same form is seldom, if ever, precisely duplicated.
In rhythm and alliteration, rhyme sequence and the grouping of lines into
stanzas, the form in each case seems to be determined by the content,
naturally, spontaneously. Yet for one who has intimately studied these
verses until his mind and heart vibrate responsively, the words of all
have an indefinable melody of their own, as it were, one dominant melody,