Björnson's diction corresponds to the quality of style thus
briefly characterized. The modern Norwegian language has no
considerable, highly developed special vocabulary for poetic use.
From the diction of prose the poet must quarry and carve the verbal
material for his verse. It sometimes seems, indeed, as if it were
hard for Björnson to find the right block and fit it, nicely cut,
into his line. In describing his diction critics have used the
figures of hewing and of hammer-strokes, but then have said that
it is not so much laborious effort we hear as the natural falling
into place of words heavy with thought and feeling. Here it is
that translation must so often come short of faithful reproduction.
The choice of words in relation to rhythm and euphony is a mystery
difficult to interpret even in the poet's own language. If we
try to analyze the verse of great poets, we frequently find, beyond
what is evidently the product of conscious design, effects of
suggestion and sound which could not be calculated and designed.
The verbal material seems hardly to be amenable to the poet's
control, but rather to be chosen, shaped, and placed involuntarily
by the thought and the mood. _The Ocean_ is a good example of
the distinctive power and beauty of Björnson's diction.

Such, then, in melody, rhythm, style, and diction is the form of
Björnson's verse: compact, reticent, suggestive, without elaborate
verbal ornamentation, strong with "the long-vibrating power of the
deeply felt, but half-expressed." It challenges and stimulates
the soul of the hearer or reader to an intense activity of
appropriation, which brings a fine reward.

III