Let spring sound out over the earth!
And within the great music of nature
a murmuring thanks from my heart,
for each spring I have known.
Like the beating of hooves in my breast,
is this heaven-sent joy to me –
and of all God’s gifts, the greatest.
("Let spring sound out over the earth")
Nature is important in Hamsun’s writing
Nature is usually described in terms of its contrast to some cultural sphere, which might be a trading post, a town, or America. Nature is a place for powerful emotional experiences, as in Pan (1894), for example; or it is a place for reflection and peace, as is the case with the forest by the rectory in Mysteries (1892).
Hamsun’s descriptions of nature are overtly idyllic, but often the idyll is threatened. In a number of his poems and novels Hamsun reveals his pantheism, and in both Pan and Growth of the Soil (1917) nature is given an almost divine presence. A number of the poems in Hamsun’s only collection of poetry, The Wild Choir (1904) are about the longing for and experience of intimacy between people and nature, as in "The Skerry" and "Grave".
