tly adopts only a
single thought or a general idea from its content, and expresses this in
his own language and form.

His original hymns likewise bear the imprint of his ripe knowledge and
spiritual understanding. They are for the most part objective in content
and sentiment, depicting the great themes of Biblical history, doctrine
and life rather than the personal feeling and experiences of the
individual. A large number of his hymns are, in fact, faithful but often
striking adaptations of Bible stories and texts. For though he was
frequently accused of belittling the Book of Books, his hymns to a larger
extent than those of any other Danish hymnwriter are directly inspired by
the language of the Bible. He possessed an exceptional ability to absorb
the essential implications of a text and to present it with the terseness
and force of an adage.

Although Grundtvig's hymns at times attain the height of pure poetry,
their poetic merit is incidental rather than sought. In the pride of his
youth he had striven, as he once complained, to win the laurel wreath,
but had found it to be an empty honor. His style is more often forceful
than lyrical. When the mood was upon him he could play the lyre with
entrancing beauty and gentleness, but he preferred the organ with all
stops out.

His style is often rough but expressive and rich in imagery. In this he
strove to supplant time-honored similes and illustrations from Biblical
lands with native allusions and scenes. Pictures drawn from the Danish
landscape, lakes and streams, summer and winter, customs and life abound
in his songs, giving them a home-like touch that has endeared them to
millions.

His poetry is of very unequal merit. He was a prolific writer, producing,
besides many volumes of poetry on various subjects, about three thousand
hymns and songs. Among much that is excellent in this vast production
there are also dreary stretches of rambling loquacity, hollow rhetoric
and unintelligible jumbles of words and phrases. He could be
insupportably dull and again express more in a single stanza, couplet or
phrase than many have said in a whole book. A study of his poetry is,
therefore, not unlike a journey through a vast country, alternating in
fertile valleys, barren plains and lofty heights with entrancing views
into far, dim vistas.

This inconsistency in the work of a man so eminently gifted as Grundtvig
is explainable only by his method of writing. He was an intuit