He was a modernist who founded and edited the journal Birtingur, the leading forum for modernism in Iceland at the time.
"[4] His subject matter includes love and nature, often joined together, and he is critical of greed and exploitation.
His critique of social injustice, according to scholar of Icelandic literature Neijmann, is expressed through sarcasm or the use of imagery derived from nature, and is free from sermonizing.
[3] His forms are highly varied and he employed alliteration and rhyme, but also wrote free verse and prose poetry.
[3] In the nine slim volumes of poetry he published, Einar Bragi reworks and revisits the same material,[2] "so that in effect the poet was republishing his work over and over again."