Rolf Jacobsen, Rolf Jacobsen poetry, Secular or Eclectic, Secular or Eclectic poetry, poetry, poetry, Christian poetry Rolf Jacobsen
Norway (1907 - 1994) Timeline
Secular or Eclectic
Christian : Catholic

Poems by Rolf Jacobsen
Books - Links

Rolf Jacobsen's poetry often explored modern subjects: urban life, cars, the industrial machine. But Jacobsen's view of the technological 20th century was nuanced and expressed a melancholy awareness of how nature, quiet, and the interior life were overlooked in this new enthusiastic haste.

Jacobsen was born in Oslo (then called Kristiania). His father was a dentist and his mother a nurse. He was raised for part of his childhood by his uncle, a railway engineer. Jacobsen studied several years at the University of Oslo without graduating.

He married in 1940 and had two sons. He was happily married, and wrote several poem about married life.

World War II was turbulent for Jacobsen. Like many in Nazi-occupied Norway, he became a member of the Norwegian Nationalist Socialist Party in order to get by. When the Germans were defeated, he spent nearly four years in prison for his affiliation with the occupiers.

Afterward, he settled in Hamar, north of Oslo, and became a bookseller and journalist. During this period he converted to Catholicism. Only after several years did he return to poetry, writing with renewed compassion, continuing to meditate on the shifting pace and focus of life in the modern era, becoming a greatly loved and respected poet later in life.

Poems by Rolf Jacobsen


Recommended Books: Rolf Jacobsen

The Winged Energy of Delight The Roads Have Come to an End Now: Selected and Last Poems of Rolf Jacobsen Night Music: Selected Poems North in the World: Selected Poems of Rolf Jacobsen, A Bilingual Edition Night Open: Selected Poems



Related Links

Rolf Jacobsen
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/jaco.htm
A good online biography of Jacobsen.
Rolf Jacobsen