Rabbe Enckell


Rabbe Arnfinn Enckell was a Finnish author, writer and poet. Enckell is regarded as one of the stalwarts of the Swedo-Finnish poetic revival that began in the 1920s.
Enckell was born in Tammela, Tavastia Proper. He studied art in France and Italy. In 1923 he brought out his first poetry collection, entitled Dikter. It was a collection of impressionistic nature poems. The collection and its sequel, Flöjtblåsarlycka, which was published in 1925, were contained Enckell's vivid description of the changes in nature. Enckell was a modernist. For a year in 1928-29 he worked for the avant-garde journal Quosego. He then wrote a couple of semi-autobiographical novels, which included Ljusdunkel. He returned to poetry with the publication of The Cistern of Spring. He followed it with The Sounding Board. The modernist streak in his poetry prompted comparisons with T.S. Eliot. Enckell brought out another collection of poems, The Vault, which was published in 1937. He died in Helsinki, aged 71.

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