**4. Conclusions**

This investigation of dream poems within the modernist tradition has focused on central forms types of dream poems from the perspective of Surrealism, which is the modern European movement that has foregrounded the importance of the dream. In Artur Lundkvist's "Om natten älskar jag någon ... " we meet a woman of dreams in more than one sense. The nightly dream forms a positive counterpart to reality and creates contact with a both fascinating and frightening woman who cannot be reached at daytime. Thus, the poem supports Surrealism's high evaluation of dreams and its belief in the subconscious powers of the human being. The poems by Gunnar Ekelöf and Tomas Tranströmer reflect the Surrealist movement and the dream on a more general level. Ekelöf's "Monolog med dess hustru" not only encompasses the different methods used by the Surrealists when trying to give voice to the subconscious. The poem is emblematic of Surrealism in that it represents a similar revolt of a social, moral and aesthetic character. In "Drömseminarium", however, Tranströmer sheds light on the very nature of the dream and in doing so, he even moves beyond the level of the subconscious mind. In addition to highlighting the land of inner life, Tranströmer's investigation of the dream creates a space for a larger and more fundamental story which takes place without our knowledge.

Furthermore, these three dream poems are representative of the different understandings of the function of the dream initially described in Hugo Friedrich and Kurt Leonhard's writings on modernism. In Lundkvist's poem, we are introduced to a positive vision of the dream corresponding to Friedrich's understanding of the dream as a release from reality. Ekelöf's poem, on the contrary, is more on a par with Leonhard's perception of the dream, as it is oriented towards primitive and fundamental layers in the human being. Finally, we have seen that Tranströmer's poem represents a continuation of the Surrealist tradition while at the same time transcending this tradition.

If we look at the poems in a chronological order, therefore, it seems that Lundkvist and Ekelöf, who have a share in Surrealism as a historical movement, also represent the most regular Surrealist positions. This is indeed the case, although Ekelöf's poem appears in a collection from 1955. Additionally, Tranströmer's poem points to Surrealism as a movement that remains an important source of inspiration throughout the twentieth century. Thus, the fact that the poems originate from collections from the 1930s, 1950s and 1980s, not only implies that dream poems are an important category within Nordic Lyrical Modernism. It also indicates that a movement such as Surrealism is effective far beyond the boundaries of time with which it is usually associated. Surrealism is not just a phenomenon in European literature that belongs to the art of the 1920s and 1930s. Surrealism is also a mode of expression that throws light on the importance of the dream and the subconscious across time boundaries.<sup>7</sup>

**Conflicts of Interest:** The author declares no conflict of interest.

<sup>6</sup> In *The Sense of Time in the Poetry of Tomas Tranströmer* (1985), Joanna Bankier also addresses this universalist aspect. Bankier writes that in the poems of Tranströmer, the human being is in intimate contact with nature. Referring to Breton, she concludes: "All things in nature are inter–dependent. And the connections continue, far beyond the visible world into the underworld of the spirit and the dead and into our own unconscious. Man branches out into the shady regions of dream and the dead in a vast system of 'vases communicantes'" (Bankier 1985, p. 59).

<sup>7</sup> This article is based on a chapter named "Drømmedigte—Modernismens surreelle tilstande" from my book *Nedbrydningens opbyggelighed. Litterære historier i det 20. århundredes nordiske modernistiske lyrik* (Mønster 2009). In this chapter, I also discuss poems by Gunnar Björling, Ivan Malinowski, and Henrik Nordbrandt.
