distinctly Björnsonian. This unity in variety, spontaneous and
characteristic, is not found in the earlier poems not included in this
volume. So far as is known, Björnson's first printed poem appeared in a
newspaper in 1852. It and other youthful rhymes of that time extant in
manuscript, and still others as late as 1854, are interesting by reason
of their contrast with his later manner; the verse-form has nothing
personal, the melodies are those of older poets. It is in the lyrics
of _Synnöve Solbakken_, written in 1857 or just before, that Björnson
for the first time sings in his own forms his own melody.

Style and diction are the determining factors in the poetic form of
lyric verse, along with the perhaps indistinguishable and indefinable
quality of melodiousness. Of Björnson's style or manner in the larger
sense it must be said that it is not subjectively lyrical. He is not
disposed to introspective dwelling on his own emotions and to profuse
self-expression without a conscious purpose. In general he must have
some definite objective end in view, some occasion to celebrate for
others, some "cause" to champion, the mood of another person or of
other persons, real or fictitious, to reproduce synthetically in a
combination of thoughts, feelings, similes, and sounds. In his
verses words do not breed words, nor figures beget figures unto lyric
breadth and vagueness. When Björnson was moved to make a poem, he was
so filled with the end, the occasion, the cause, the mood to be
reproduced, that he was impatient of any but the most significant
words and left much to suggestion. Often the words seem to be in one
another's way, and they are not related with grammatical precision.
Thus in the original more than in the translation of the poem
_Norway, Norway!_ the first strophe of which is:
Norway, Norway,
Rising in blue from the sea's gray and green,