A Glance at Estonian Urban Poetry Between 1860–1940 Õnne Kepp

A CHANCE for ESTONIAN URBAN POETRY? A Glance at Estonian Urban Poetry Between 1860–1940 Õnne Kepp roughout the ages Estonian poetry has been considered rustic, even up to the World War II. Poetry focused on rural images, the farmhouse milieu, peo- ple caught in the cycle of work on the farm. Estonian poetry contains a great number of beautiful nature poems – the latter relying on a strong perception of nature, environmental traditions, sense of landscape. e basis of all this is the centuries-long co-existence and communication with nature. Each epoch has its own poet of nature. All the authors of the period of national awakening express their nature-related feelings; Juhan Liiv stands out in the late 19th – early 20th century, Villem Grünthal-Ridala during the Young Estonia days, etc. is line can be traced through to the present day. When did a wider panorama emerge besides/instead of the deep perception of nature; when did poets first take notice of the rapidly developing town and start depicting it? How did the new subject matter and topics shape the way of thinking of our poets who mostly came from the country, and when did the image of a town first appear in Estonian lyrical poetry? What means were used to describe towns? ese are the questions that are addressed in this article. e process of Estonian urbanisation has not been sufficiently examined. -Al though several fields and disciplines (sociology, psychology, history of economy and art) have dealt with it, only a few conclusions have been drawn. Seen from the point of view of history and cultural history, the relations between village and town were already significant at the end of the awakening period. Carl Ro- bert Jakobson, one of the period’s ideologues, believed that the town was nothing but an evil and amoral environment, thus starting off the opposition between village and town. e ideology was directed at peasants – the place for a decent person was in the country where the most important things in life were created. Jakobson expressed his contempt for those who moved to or lived in town with a new word – vurle (‘layabout’, ‘dandy’) (Hallas 1995: 91). We remember what 360 361 Õnne Kepp Anton Hansen Tammsaare said about peasant boys acquiring education in town: they went to the town to learn the trade of a horse-thief. However, the prose of the 1870s displayed the first glimpses of urban environment and life (Jakob Pärn, Lilli Suburg, Elisabeth Aspe, Maximillian Põdder). From the point of view of national ideology, mention should be made of stories by Johann Volde- mar Jannsen and Lydia Koidula, and of plays by Koidula that take a look at the opposition between the old (the isolating village) and the new (the new cultural mentality) (Kruus 1920: 74–75). e attitude towards village and town became one of the cultural-ideological oppositions of our national movement. Urbanisation as a social process culminated in the late 19th – early 20th centuries. Various writers and literary scholars of the time analysed the process and attempted to draw conclusions. e trend eulogising village and country life still prevailed, both in literature and in cultural ideology. Alongside that, urban description was just emerging, regarded in a negative light or occasionally per- ceived with slight optimism. In 1920 the young Hans Kruus published the book titled Town and Village in Estonia, which besides other topics also analysed the representation of town and village in Estonian literature. is was like a small overview of Estonian literature, focusing on descriptions of milieu and environment. In conclusion, Kruus finds: ‘e ‘human hubbub’ of our towns is weak, the noise rare and ‘ear-splitting’ in only few streets. Just as weak is the urban pathos of our writers, their devotion to town.’ (Kruus 1920: 90.) In the third part of his History of Estonian Literature (1929), Villem Ridala writes about the years in question: ‘there was no sign of urbanisation then. Only some movement to the suburbs, settling there, moving into the economic, decent and intellectual atmosphere of a small town. e feeble youth of Estonian urban life explains why the manifestations of our intellectual life are still so immature and vague.’ (Ridala 1929: 7.) Besides such pessimistic opinions, we could refer here to Karin Hallas’s article of 1995, ‘An Estonian and a big city’. is article examines briefly but thoroughly the manifestations in literature in relation to the process of urbanisation (Hallas 1995: 90–114). Hallas relied on several facts and percentages from sociological research, thus being able to claim that Tallinn at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries was a big city (with population over 100,000). She made an attempt to analyse Estonian literature (prose) of the time from the point of view of urban topics, presenting a thorough overview of the authors who most vividly described the urban milieu or urban motifs in their work (Eduard 362 363 A Chance for Estonian Urban Poetry? Vilde, Ernst Peterson-Särgava, Mait Metsanurk, Otto Münther etc.). Despite the metropolitanism, the city in their works, in most cases a slum area, remains a grim, oppressing and horrible place, that is depicted in naturalistic tones. A new, modernist approach to the city is introduced by members of the Young Estonia literary group, whose ideal was to create a European urban culture. is was expressed in the works of Gustav Suits, Friedebert Tuglas, Bernhard Linde. eir writings – articles and essays – look at the city with pathos and exaltation. ‘On the whole, the Young Estonians see the town as something positive; it ‘wakes you from inertia’ and creates a new culture, but they naturally saw negative sides as well – a town encourages individualism, at the same time bringing along alienation, solitude, cuts off the roots, completely changes the life style.’ (Hallas 1995: 95) Towns advance the life of a society and deserve attention in Estonian prose. Where, however, is poetry? What positions does our poetry de- termine, possess and value? In the collection Place and Location II, Anneli Mih- kelev (2002: 431–454) only wrote about texts on Tartu and Tallinn throughout the ages. e urban theme of Estonian poetry is much wider and comprehensive, and this article makes an attempt to view classical Estonian poetry in corpore. e prologue to the development of Estonian urban poetry occurred in the early 18th century, when historical events provided the subject matter for poetry about towns. e most significant example of this is Käsu Hans’s song of woe, ‘Oh, my poor town of Tartu’, in which Tartu laments its history – the burning and destruction of the town during the Northern War. Considering destruction as God’s punishment, Tartu also warns other important towns (Pärnu, Tallinn, Riga) against sinful life so that the same fate should not befall them. e mono- logue of Tartu thus starts off our history of original urban poetry. Still, a century and a half will pass before a purposefully artistic Estonian literature emerges. Culture of the national awakening period, the budding original literature and other areas, were fully meant for the rural population. Although the movement was directed in towns, in which various events took place (Tartu, Viljandi), all undertakings and publications were orientated towards peasants. e purpose of poetry that tackled national matters and passionately promoted new ideas, was to ‘awaken’, unite, join. Looking at poetry generally, Estonian lyrical verse of the time created an image of flowering landscapes (Alhoniemi 1969: 86), a happy space, protected from hostile forces (Bachelard 1999: 31). Fatherland and peasants become the main bearers of Estonian poetry. ere was no need 362 363 Õnne Kepp whatsoever for the inclusion of urban topics. Even widely used German para- gons (Lenau, Uhland, Heine, several second-rate anthologies) failed to incite any interest in urban matters. e hugely popular Biedermeier mentality had, as a rule, nothing to do with Estonian poetry (except Lydia Koidula’s Meadow Flowers [Vainulilled], 1866). As Jakobson said – even talking about town was un- healthy, as it was corrupt and did not strategically fit into the happy space, built with such effort and self-sacrifice. Elise Aun’s dual poem ‘In Town’ ILinnas ( ) and ‘In the Country’ II (Maal) might be a good example here, illuminating the thirty-year long concept. Away from here, no longer / Can I bear the stress! / I cannot stand it any more – / e mere air here is killing me. (Aun 1890: 11.) Again I breathe the fresh forest air / Again I tread the sweet flowery path, / Again songs of joy rise from my chest, / Nature, on your lovely bosom. (Aun 1890: 11.) Town is a prison, a harasser, a frightening ‘creature’, and contact with it could result in damage, even death. An interesting fact is that even Jakobson wrote a poem titled ‘Green Town’ (Roheline linn) that, however, is an allegory of the forest, lauded by the author: ‘green forest and trees – / proud town and little houses’ (Jakobson 1959: 50). is was his town. Little is written about the town during the period of awakening, only a few authors spring to mind. First of all, there are some motifs referring to the town in Lydia Koidula’s collection of poetry, e Nightingale of Emajõgi (Emajõe ööbik, 1867). e town has no name. e poem ‘On the Shore of Emajõgi’ (Emajõe kal- dal) contains a direct reference to Tartu (as does the entire collection), not only through the river Emajõgi, but by means of the lines, ‘Where high pillars rise / From the grave / And spread enlightenment / Upon my Estonia.’ (Koidula 1969: 77, trans.

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