THE COLLECTED POEMS OF HENRIK IBSEN Translated by John ...

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Ibsen was appointed artistic director to the Norwegian Theatre which had failed, since its
foundation in 1852, to promote specifically Norwegian talent, subject-matter and language.
Within a fortnight of his arrival Ibsen put on a double bill: The Tale of the Mountains, a
ballad-opera by Henrik Bjærregaard, and a sequel by Henrik Wergeland — the two, now
dead, “sons of Norway” who had drawn on native themes. The production was very well
received “A little to the south” — a reference to Danish literature.
AT OLE VIG’S GRAVE
Thursday 24 December 1857.
Warrior, rest! your day of battle ended,
Wounds, no longer burning, mended
In your noble breast!
For the goal of your ambitions,
For your folk, you fought life’s missions
To the last, dour test.
Good the deed you have exampled,
Grace’s bounty you’ve now sampled, —
Bliss’s timeless rest.
God’s hand will in charity
Open to your soul now free!
Your reward, now strife must cease,
Is heaven’s peace!
H.Ibsen
Ole Vig, of yeoman stock, became one of the leading activists in the field of education. He
died of mental exhaustion at the age of 33.
TO THE MEMORY OF CARL JOHAN
(dedicated to the Carl Johan Society)
Dead Prince, what more tribute, pray?
Has the North, your bier-side keeping,
Offered you no filial weeping,
Mourned not by your lifeless clay?
Have we not in song and rhyme
Raised memorials unstinted
Where your name in gold imprinted
Will resist the lapse of time?
Judged we not our fame to rise
With your noble reputation?
Drew we not, with approbation,
Profit from your enterprise?
Your triumphant faring forth
On your Alexander-mission, —
Stands it not, a shared tradition,
In the annals of the North?