[1] Poetry continues to be popular in Finland today and is marked by the individual directions its poets take not limited to traditional schools or ideologies.
In the second half of the 19th century August Ahlqvist, known by his pseudonym Oksanen, also had a considerable influence on Finnish poetry providing strict rules about the forms of linguistic expression in an attempt to match if not rival the literary art of other European languages.
[5] These poems were originally written for Finnish Nobility of the Middle Ages and they reflect universal myths such as the creation of the world from an egg, the Milky Way as being depicted by a humungous tree, and deeds of heroes.
[7] These stories, belonging to the larger folk epic Kalevala, are mixed with historical as well as mystical themes which has caused speculation on fictionality of the tales' characters.
Many of the lyrics are love songs emotive of Finland's rural landscapes pulling imagery from its forests, lakes and occasionally village life.
[8] Two centuries later attitudes towards folk poetry changed after scholar Henrick Gabriel Porthan in 1766 began research collecting old material.
[8] His advocation inspired serious scholarship among fellow teachers and students until in 1789, a friend Christfrid Ganander published Mythologia Fennica, 'an encyclopaedia of phenomena associated with folk beliefs and poetry'.
[7] Their use of free rhythm, lack of rhyme and symbolic imagery showed a scepticism towards worldly politics in favour of honing lyrical expression.
The rapid urbanisation that also began in this period also brought forth buildings bearing no historical roots to folkloric history disrupting both a sense of cultural identity and social cohesion within these new cities.
[14] Nonetheless, the rise of East/ West politics and the discussion of international relations inspired younger more ambitious poets whose thinking predominantly came from Leftist Marxism.
[15] The aesthetic of these poets was shaped using experimentation, introducing techniques such as collage and montage in order to what Veivo says, 'open the space of the text to foreign voices and materials and to connect with everyday life, politics and a wide range of social discourses'.
[14] This opened the poetic form to the creolization of language and allowing for elements, linguistic as well as social and political, to contaminate and merge with the poetry regardless of order.
[14] Some of the poetry from this time was also written to be published alongside popular articles of varying topics from economy, politics to community statistics on alcohol consumption.
[14] Abandoning the viewpoint that contemplation should be made from a distance and the old war themed trope of a 'no man's land', 60s Finnish poetry sought to align itself with the humanitarian movements happening in other countries.
With suburban housing complexes being both built on the edge of cities and deep within the forest, the relationship between people and their environment became framed and blocked by modern infrastructure.
In Matti Paavilainen's Kaupunki enemmän kuin kohtalo (City more than destiny, 1972), he writes: 'Everything you see is an answer to the question you didn't have to make', identifying the poets connection to the environment while noticing his discordance in terms of its development.
[2] Though some modernist uses of old folk metre came off as anachronistic, apart from Eino Leino who was one of the only poets to make use of it correctly, in versus consisting of a blend of both historical and the mythological.