"Vaarstemning" / "Spring Dreams" - Karl Xavier's 1898 Poem: Publishing with The Giants
John Edward Xavier
In memoriam: "The Other Grandmother,"
Henrietta Elisabeth Randine (Larsen) Xavier, (1864-1904)
In memoriam: "The Other Grandmother,"
Henrietta Elisabeth Randine (Larsen) Xavier, (1864-1904)
In 1982 Magdalene X. Visovatti completed translation and editing work on Norwegian Poems, her privately published bilingual book of manuscript poems authored by her father, Rev. Karl Xavier (1969-1924). In Norwegian Poems, Visovatti (1897-1988) had assembled one of the largest single-author collections of poetry in the written Dano-Norwegian literary language so beloved by the Norwegian immigrants in North America. In her "Foreword," Visovatti stated that the majority of the poems had appeared in print in various periodicals, but did not mention publication of any poems in anthology form.
Norwegian Poems was for the most part organized chronologically and included thirty poems along with a less conventional prose poem, titled "Rimbrev" / "Rhythm Letter" (or "Rhyme Letter"). As to the manuscripts themselves, family lore credits them as only a portion of an unrealized book project. That alleged book project was to be a large-scale work: a collection of Norwegian-American poetry, edited by the able Rev. Thomas Nilsson. Nillson, a close church and publishing associate of the extended Xavier family, left no documentation of his project of which I am aware, and at any rate the project was lost to the ages by his early death in 1916.
Magdalene X. Visovatti brought Norwegian Poems to fruition, nearly sixty years after the death of Karl Xavier, in cooperation with members of her extended family. Notable among them was a half-sister, Valborg Henrietta (Xavier) Houghtelin, who, in 1924, took a major initiative. As a teenage girl, grief-stricken at the death of her father, Valborg set aside, hid, and preserved his manuscript poems for decades, until 1980.
Aside from Valborg's gift of preserved manuscripts, Visovatti was closely supported in her project by two Midwestern brothers and their wives: Karl Astrup and Edith (Bethke) Xavier; and Valdemar U. and Elna (Johnson) Xavier. Other extended family members in the Pacific Coast states offered various forms of support as well, including financial contributions, for the publishing run of about sixty copies. Visovatti herself was fully qualified for the translation task, as she had studied Norwegian under Prof. Ole E. Rolvaag at St. Olaf College. Furthermore, Visovatti had not only published her own poetry in Norwegian, but also had engaged in serious prose translation from the Norwegian to English.
As Visovatti chose to organize Norwegian Poems for the most part along chronological lines, so the book begins with "Vaarstemning" / "Spring Dreams." While Visovatti indicates that particular poem was composed in 1898, it remains unknown where it might have been published between 1898 and 1903. Nonetheless, in 1903, "Spring Dreams" and two other of Karl Xavier's poems were selected by Dr. Ludvig Lima for his monumental and still-respected anthology, Norsk-amerikanske digte i udvalg / Collected Norwegian American Poetry. [1]
Dr. Ludvig Lima's 355-page collection of poetry featured forty-five Norwegian American poets, widely believed to be the cream among authors of written verse in the Dano-Norwegian language. Among them were (alphabetically) such luminaries as Waldemar Ager, John Benson, Peer Stromme, Knut Martin Olson (M.O.) Teigen, and Johannes Wist. Karl Xavier was at the young age of 34 honored with publication of three poems, and was thus included among the high circles of Norwegian-language poets. He was apparently the only poet of Sami background whose work appeared in this collection.
It truly was among the high circles that Xavier was published, as Dr. Lima's anthology has stood the test of time The book has remained sufficiently important among scholars of Scandinavian studies to receive repeated attention, even in modern times. Among other scholars, Prof. Odd Lovoll has seen Norsk-amerikanske digte i udvalg as one of the landmark collections of Norwegian American verse. Lovoll, in so stating, vindicated both Lima's authors and the opinion of Prof. O.E. Rolvaag: in the 1920s, more than twenty years after the publication of Dr. Lima's work, Rolvaag would pay homage to many of those forty-five poets, characterizing them as "golden voices."
Among Prof. Rolvaag's "golden voices" of Norwegian American literature was Karl Xavier. Other authorities, have recognized the poets featured by Dr. Lima, in a variety of serious publications, among them Orm Overland and scholars undertaking thesis work for advanced degrees.[2]
The context for Karl Xavier's poetry, as published in Dr. Lima's edition, was that of a young and creative pastor embarking on both career and family life with his love-match wife, Henrietta, in the full glory of the Decorah, Iowa area, one of the heartlands of Norwegian American Lutheranism. Karl Xavier and Henrietta Elisabeth Randine (Larsen) Xavier not only had their love-match marriage, but also lived in close proximity to both sides of their family and to friends, as well.
This was during Xavier's first pastorate (1895-1903), north of Lawler (Saude), Iowa, at the Crane Creek and Little Turkey parishes in Chickasaw County, Iowa, from 1893-1903, in close proximity to Decorah. The Lawler (Saude) location in afforded regular contacts with all of the grandparents of their children, as Lawler was hard by Henrietta's home and family in Decorah , and Karl's home and family in Ridgeway, both in Winneshiek County.
Decorah was the location of Luther College, the first Norwegian Lutheran college.That city also served as the headquarters for intellectual and publishing activity of the Norwegian Lutheran Synod ("The Synod"). It was at Luther College that Henrietta's father, Prof. Laur. Larsen, held forth as the founding President, assisted by his hard-working second wife, Ingeborg (Astrup) Larsen. Within a few miles of Decorah were Karl's own parents, Rev. Nils Paul (N.P.) and Amanda Xavier, and their family at nearby Ridgeway, Iowa; and Luther College, his alma mater (Class of 1892). N.P. and Amanda during this time were resided in a two-church parish in Ridgeway, participating as colleagues of the "Decorah Ring," the group of prominent leaders who directed the Norwegian Lutheran Synod. [3]
Yet, by the time of the 1903 Lima poetry edition the shadow of ill health was present in the Xavier household. While Karl Xavier had composed, "Vaarstemning" / "Spring Dreams," in 1898, in a mere five-year period, the poem was published during a less-than-pleasant period for the Xavier family.
"Little Hennie" was since childhood rather on the frail side, and suffered increasingly from ill health. Like all of the children of Karen Randine (Neuberg) Larsen, Prof. Laur. Larsen's first wife, Henrietta was destined to live just short of forty years. Responsibilities as both a pastor's wife and a mother of three small children weighed heavily on Henrietta. By 1903, the year of publication of the Lima edition, Karl and Henrietta already had their family: daughter, (Karen) Magdalene (b. 1897), along with sons Paul Nylander (b. 1899), and Peter Laurentius Neuberg (b. 1901). It became increasingly clear, in the months following the birth of Peter, that Karl would be well-advised to seek another professional appointment which would relieve Henrietta of the demands of parish life.
This he did by accepting an appointment in the summer of 1903 as a professor at the Lutheran Normal School ("LNS" or "The Normal") in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. LNS was a Norwegian Lutheran training college for school teachers, and had sought Karl for his linguistic, literary, and teaching skills, not only for his theological background. Henrietta died a little more than a year later, in 1904. [4]
As to the poem at hand, we find in "Spring Dreams" a short work, written in 1897, in a time of nearly ideal family and professional time. The actual wording borders on what we might today characterize as a minimalism of sorts. "Spring Dreams" is essentially a brief and highly concentrated human appreciation of the beauties of springtime. It is a poem of focused thoughts, a poem put to a pair of tasks: of taking inventory of nature's bounty, and of accumulating reasons for an ultimate expression of appreciation to the Creator of all.
Prominent among the images is the ever-present activity of nature itself, as an unceasing, assertive, and yet benevolent force. The theme of humanistic appreciation of nature appears throughout the poetry of Karl Xavier, revealing him as a man of both worldly awareness and deep spirituality.
Vaarstemning / Spring Dreams (1898)
by / av Karl Xavier
Translated by / oversatt av Magdalene X. Visovatti
--------------Hurrying
Shiftingly
Spring breezes push
Us smilingly
Lovingly
Wrap us in warmth.
Glitteringly
Daylight
Draws near us fast
Kissing the
Wavering
Night-darkness out.
Smilingly
Gladden us
Flowers in the fields
Thrillingly
Sing for us
Songbirds their lays.
Suffering eases at
Spring's Command.
Hearts
Stir gently
With thanks to our God.
[1a] Karl Xavier, Norwegian Poems, Magdalene X. Visovatti, Ed. and Trans. (Albert Lea, Minnesota: Valdemar.U. Xavier, 1982), pp. 7-7a. For a more detailed account of Visovatti's massive translation effort, see article in this blog,"Wading into Deep Waters of Translation and Narration in Xavier Family History: Magdalene X. Visovatti (and Others) At Work, Part One."
[1b] Ludvig Lima, M.D, Ed. Norsk-Amerikanske digte i udvalg / Collected Norwegian American Poetry (Minneapolis, Minnesota: Undommens Ven Pub. Co., 1903), pp.339-340. Editor's note: An alternative translation to the title of "Vaarstemning" could be "Springtime Mood." I also suggest alternatives for verse three, line two: "Gladdened are we" and for verse three, line four through six: "Thrillingly songbirds / Sing for us / Their glories." Karl Xavier's other two poems were: "Poesien" / "Poesy" and "Fjortende oktober" / "Fourteenth of October" ("En mindedag i den Norske Synodes historie" / "A Memorable Day in Norwegian Synond History").
The 1903 Lima collection was published in the fashion of a serious project, not only by the inclusion of respected poets. The seriousness was also evident in the quality of the book itself, beginning with a well-designed leather cover, setting this book off from what had already begun to dominate publishing: a trend to cheaper paper-bound editions.
Several copies of the original Lima edition still exist in North America, notably at libraries of educational institutions, including: Luther College of Decorah, Iowa; St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota, and Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachussetts. Full text of the Lima work can be downloaded by requesting a pdf format from this source, found on Google Books: books.google.com/books/about/Norsk_amerikanske_digte_i_udvalg_i_udvalg.html
[1c] Olav Morgan Norlie, Ed. Norsk Lutherske Mindekirke i Amerika 1843-1916/ Norwegian Lutheran Congregations in America, Forste Bind/Vol. 1 (Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Publishing, 1918), Iowa references for parishes associated with Revs. Laur. Larsen, N.P. Xavier, and Karl Xavier. This massive work also includes Canadian congregations.
[2a] Odd Lovoll, The Promise of America: A History of the Norwegian American People (Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press and Norwegian American Historical Association, Revised edition, 1999), pp. 219-220 on poetry. On literature and culture in general, see Chapter 7, "Cultural Growth," pp. 205-230. As to Wm Ager, Lovoll saw him as gifted, “perhaps the most original Norwegian-American novelist besides O. E. Rølvaag. His agitation for temperance, however, at times stood in the way of his creative powers and he became didactic and moralizing.” [Note that Ager in 1917 went against the prevailing public opinion by publishing the novel Paa veien til smeltepotten /On the Way to the Melting Pot by way of protest against twin issues: the all-consuming war hysteria of the Great War (World War I), and the companion demands of that war hysteria for all-out ("one hundred per cent") Americanism. Lovoll, p.106.
[2b] Ole E. Rolvaag, Concerning Our Heritage / Omkring Faedrearven, Solveign Zempel, Trans. (Northfield, Minnesota: Norwegian American Historical Association, 1998), pp. 150-151. Prof. Rolvaag and Karl Xavier collaborated on several projects. See also article in this blog, "Rev. Karl Xavier's 1920 Condolence Poem, 'To Professor and Mrs. Rolvaag,' ['Til Professor og fru Rolvaag']" for information on connections between the Rolvaag and Xavier families.
[2c] Aagot D. Hoidahl, "Norwegian-American Fiction 1880-1928," Studies and records, Vol. 5, pp. 61-83. In an essay that covers literacy, newspapers, fiction and poetry, Hoidahl mentions Peer Stromme's poetic work in footnote 6, remarking:: "Some of Strommes best lyrics...." saw print in Dr. Lima's anthology.
[2d] W. Scott Nelson, "The Viking Invasion: An Historiography of Norwegian-American Literature and Its Role in Norwegian Immigration and the Founding of Vesterheim Within America," unpublished M.A. Thesis, Humboldt State University (Arcata, California, 2005). This recent compilation of historical studies includes references to such poetic leaders as Waldemar Ager and Johannes Wist.
[2e] Steven Keillor, "Rural Norwegian-American Reading Societies in The Late 19th Century," Norwegian American Studies (Northfield, Minnesota), Vol. 33 (1992, 139-165. Keillor also mentions Stromme and others, in the context of an audience of highly literate and motivated readers within the Norwegian American immigrant culture. Keillor's article captures that culture, giving some long overdue credit to social organizations arising from the high literacy rates among Norwegian Americans. I find it useful to refer to that tendency toward social and literary organization as a sort of "reading infrastructure."
[2f] Kristen A. Risley, "VIkings of the Midwest: Place, Culture, and Ethnicity in Norwegian-American Literature, 1870-1940," unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, 2003. Risley's In-depth study, included the renowned Jul i vesterheim / Christmas in the Western Home, a century-plus old Christmas Annual still publishing under the title Chistrmas. Risley makes brief mention of one poem of Magdalene Xavier Visovatti, "Stormens Vaeter" / "Father of Gale storms," in Jul i Vesterheim, 1922 edition.
[2g] Kristen A. Risley, "Christmas in Our Western Home: The Cultural Work of a Norwegian-American Christmas Annual," American Periodicals: A Journal of History, Criticism, and Bibliography, Vol 13 (2003), pp. 50-83. Risley concentrated on the Jul i vesterheim Christmas Annual.
[2h] Orm Overland, The Western Home: A Literary History of Norwegian America, in Authors Series 8 (Northfield, Minnesota: Norwegian American Historical Association), 1996. Overland included, in addition to his essays on the literary and cultural aspects, a comprehensive inventory of publications. Many of those publications were the work of authors featured in Dr. Lima's Norsk Amerikanske digte.
[3a] Karl Xavier, "April" (1905), pp. 12-15a; see also "Til min hustru, geburtsdagsvers" / "To My Wife, Birthday Verse," (1919) pp. 73-73a, both from Norwegian Poems. Imagery of the world of nature dominates in this short poem, in concert with faith in both the future and God. This poem appears in this blog, under the title "Karl Xavier's Poetry of Hope for a New Year, 1919."
[3b] Karl Xavier to Bina (Kamrud) Xavier, June, 1907. Original letter, previously unpublished, in possession of the author. Karl Xavier, attending an education conference, wrote to his wife, describing the deep pleasure derived from early morning walks in Freeborn County, Minnesota, near Albert Lea. In the letter, he mentioned the meadowlark, a bird he favored and which he mentions in his poetry.
[4a] Karen Larsen, Laur. Larsen: Pioneer College President (Northfield, MN: Norwegian American Historical Association (NAHA), 1936), pp. 277, 284, 335. This work, one of the early icons of NAHA, remains useful for many topics.
[4b] Karen Larsen, "Karen Neuberg Larsen and Her Family," Unpublished typescript (Northfield, MN: 1957), pp. 1-20. Prof. Karen Larsen, a long-term member of the history faculty at St. Olaf, devotes considerable space to the life of Henriette Larsen.
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