Fröding, Gustaf

Fröding, Gustaf (gŭs`täv frö`dĭng), 1860–1911, Swedish lyric poet. His first two volumes of poems, Guitar and Concertina (1891) and New Poems (1894), both translated into English in 1925, assured his popularity. They include songs, meditations, and poems in praise of nature. His complete works (1917–23) number 16 volumes. Translations of his poetry met with little success abroad, yet he himself was an eminent translator of Burns, Byron, Goethe, and Heine. Fröding suffered from melancholia and mental instability for much of his life. His last collections were clearly marked by his derangement.

Bibliography

See study by P. B. Austin (1986).