Hieroglyphs of another world

"The essays introduce American readers to major Scandinavian and Russian poets, such as Stagnelius and Aigi. Kutik's choice of poets highlights what he believes to be the major trends in poetic evolution in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The intersections of Russian and Swedish poetic traditions, as well as Kutik's own accomplishments as a translator of Scandinavian poetry, draw together the "national" elements of this book.".

"The final section, "Twelve Stories about Swedenborg," is both a continuation and a culmination of Kutik's project, in which the poetic elements discussed earlier in conceptual and historical terms reveal their mystical dimension. Here the life of Swedenborg, the great Swedish mystic, becomes a poetic narrative that exemplifies the laws of epic poetry articulated by Kutik in the book's previous essays."--BOOK JACKET.