CLAUSSEN, SOPHUS

born Sept. 12, 1865, Helletoft, Island of Langeland, Den. died April 11, 1931, Gentofte Danish Neoromantic poet of the 1890s who was influenced by the French Symbolists and who in turn greatly influenced Danish modernist poets of the 1940s and 1960s. Claussen sought aesthetic perfection in his light, rhythmical poetry, and with his ingenious symbolism he constantly tried to transform his impressions of Danish nature into visionary, religious experiences. In spite of his close French literary connections, his humorous, romantic play with the myths of human existence in Naturbrn (1887; Children of Nature) and Pilefljter (1899; Willow Pipes) remain in the Danish tradition. A sense of conflict enters his poetry because of the loss of beauty and the seeming meaninglessness of art in the face of the brutality and materialism of modern life, a theme that reaches its climax of expression in Claussen's last important collection, Heroica (1925). Claussen also published several travel books and lyrical prose tales of small-town life in Denmark. He translated some of his favourite poets, including Shelley, Heine, and Baudelaire.