Hofmo, Gunvor 1921–1995

PERSONAL: Born 1921, in Oslo, Norway; died 1995.

WRITINGS:

POETRY

Jeg vil hjem til menneskene (title means "I Want to Go Home to People") Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1946.

Fra en annen virkelighet (title means "From Another Reality"), Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1948.

Blinde nattergaler (title means "Blind Nightingale"), Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1951.

I en våkenatt, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1954.

Testamente til evighet, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1955.

Samlede dikt, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1968.

Gjest på jorden, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1971.

November, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1972.

Veisperringer, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1973.

Mellomspill, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1974.

Hva fanger natter, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1976.

Det er ingen hverdag mer: dikt i utvalg, edited by Odd Solumsmoen, Den norske bokklubben (Stabekk, Norway), 1976.

Det er sent, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1978.

Stjernene og barndommen, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1986.

Nabot, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1987.

Ord til bilder, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1989.

Fuglen, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1990.

Navnløst er alt i nalten, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1991.

Tiden, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1992.

Epilog, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1994.

Samlede dikt, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1996.

Etterlatte, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1997.

Jeg glemmer ingen, Gyldendal (Oslo, Norway), 1999.

SIDELIGHTS: Poet Gunvor Hofmo was profoundly influenced by the destruction she witnessed during World War II. A sense of loneliness and despair pervades her poetry. Hofmo repeatedly presents the idea that each person is alone in the world, and although one might long for a sense of home, of connection to others, this is rarely, if ever, attainable. Her first book of poems, Jeg vil hjem til menneskene, introduces these themes, which would be repeated throughout the body of her work. This initial collection of poems was written according to strict metric forms, but all her subsequent work used freer verse forms.

Tiden is a collection of deceptively simple and traditional nature poems, according to Walter D. Morris in World Literature Today. "Soon, however, the mood changes," Morris wrote, "and we see that the subject under discussion is the end of life, death, darkness, and the beyond." Images of the dead recur throughout the collection, making the small problems of ordinary life seem even smaller. The narrator, who hears the voices of the dead, becomes a mystical interface between the two realms. Morris praised Hofmo's clear language and her ability to create a sustained mood throughout the collection.

In 1997, two years after Hofmo died, Morris reviewed Samlede dikt, a collection planned to celebrate Hofmo's seventy-fifth birthday. In her fifty years of writing, she had completed twenty volumes containing approximately 700 poems about such recurring themes as the mystery of human existence, faith, and justice. The anniversary volume contains all of her previously published volumes, some of which had long been out of print. Morris noted that, "in some ways, the latter poems show more resignation and acceptance of things, as well as the certainty of God's presence…. Like many other Norwegian poets, Hofmo turns often to images of nature—trees, flowers, fields, and the sea—but always with the idea of something deep and mysterious in the background: God and eternity."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

World Literature Today, spring, 1992, Walter D. Morris, review of Navnløst er alt i nalten, p. 355; spring, 1993, Walter D. Morris, review of Tiden, p. 400; spring, 1995, Walter D. Morris, review of Epilog, p. 386; summer, 1997, Walter D. Morris, review of Samlede dikt, p. 608.