Mid Sweden University

The war poetry of Erik Axel Karlfeldt (1864-1931) is a neglected part of the poet's work. The aim of this article is to discuss three poems from Flora och Bellona (1918): "Det röda korset" ("The Red Cross"), "Svart Jul" ("Black Christmas") and "En pesthymn" ("A Hymn of Pestilence"). Attention is paid to the ideological level of the poems, but also to their poetic structure. The poems are related to Peter Hallberg's discussion of Karlfeldt's archaistic imagery, to Esaias Tegnér's "Svea", but also to the contemporary political poetry of outspoken nationalists and socialists. Compared to the explicit political poetry, Karlfeldt's poetry is complex, often ambivalent in its criticism of both belligerents and alternately displaying despair and optimism. "En pesthymn" can be seen as a turning point, mirroring the outbreak in 1918 of the Finnish Civil War. In this poem, the ambivalent moral judgements of the poet's preceding war poetry are replaced by unequivocal political support for the "Whites".