At the beginning of the 19th century, young university teachers were also expected to demonstrate a gift for poetry. This suited Frans Michael Franzén very well. He began his career as a poet as soon as he was named docent in 1792.

Franzén soon became known in cultural circles when the newspaper Stockholms Posten published his poetry between the years 1793–94. The poems published included Människans Anlete (‘Human face’, translated into Finnish as ‘Ihmis-Kaswot’ by Isak Alexis Wallenius in 1858) and Till Selma (‘For Selma’), both of which were part of the collection of Selma love poems that was inspired by Franzén’s first love, Margareta Christina Thileman.

The essential features of Franzén’s poetry are domestic harmony and descriptions of the happiness and joy of simple living. He drew inspiration for these themes from a trip he took to Lapland with professor Henrik Gabriel Porthan in 1794. For Franzén, Lapland symbolised a world of love, simplicity and freedom – the very opposite of hectic city life.

Franzén had the opportunity to broaden his horizons during a long trip abroad in 1795–96. Accompanied by a wealthy young man from Turku, Karl Fredrik Bremer, he visited Germany, France and England. Franzén’s experience of the French Revolution caused him to rethink his earlier enthusiasm for revolution.

In England, Franzén discovered what, in his opinion, was a more stable society, which he began to admire after his loss of faith in the French Revolution. He became familiar with English poetry and especially the works of William Shakespeare. Franzén took Shakespeare as a model for his own poetry and he has been described as the first in Sweden (and Finland) to truly appreciate Shakespeare’s use of language. The journey inspired him to write more and more poetry dealing with the ideological and political turmoil of his time.

When Finland became an autonomous grand duchy, Franzén saw an opportunity to reach into the wider Russian cultural sphere. In 1809 he wrote a panegyric praising Tsar (and Grand Duke) Alexander I. Alexander saw Franzén to be a mere opportunist, however, and did not include him among his favourites.

In 1810, Franzén moved permanently to Sweden. It was there that he composed his best-known poems, which were the odes to childhood and the countryside known as the Fanny series. Franzén also started work on an epic written in hexameters called Gustaf Adolph i Tyskland (‘Gustavus Adolphus in Germany’), which he never finished. Instead, by 1829 he had completed more than 12,000 stanzas of the epic Svante Sture eller Mötet vid Alvastra (‘Svante Sture, or the Meeting at Alvastra’).

Franzén’s poetry also included hymns and drinking songs. Of his drinking songs, perhaps the best known today is ‘Bordsvisa/När skämtet tar ordet vid vänskapens bord’ (‘Drinking song / When a joke is told at the table of friendship’). Of his hymns, the one that is most worth mentioning is the very popular Advent hymn Bereden väg för Herran (‘Prepare ye the way of the Lord’), which to this day is still sung in many Advent services in Sweden. Along with Archbishop Johan Olof Wallin, Franzén was in a leading position in the committee that drafted the Swedish hymnal in 1819.

There are good reasons to place Franzén among the highest-ranking early Finnish poets. But he was also one of the most talented lyrical poets in Sweden in his time. Franzén was not only a pioneer in Swedish romantic poetry, but also a notable religious poet.

Sources:

• Matti Klinge, ‘Franzén, Frans Michael’, National Biography of Finland online. Accessed April 27, 2015. (Access via NELLI)
• Göstä Lundström, ‘Frans Michael Franzén’, Dictionary of Swedish National Biography online. Accessed April 27, 2015.
• Yrjö Kotivuori, University register 1640–1852: Frans Michael Franzén. Published online 2005. Accessed April 28, 2015.
• Wikipedia, Frans Michael Franzén. Accessed April 27, 2015.