Frederik Paludan-Müller

[1] From 1838 to 1840 Paludan-Müller was making the grand tour in Europe and his genius greatly expanded; in Italy he wrote Venus, a lyrical poem of extreme beauty.

In the same year, 1841, he began to publish a great work on which he had long been engaged and which he did not conclude until 1848; this was Adam Homo, a narrative epic, satirical, modern and descriptive, into which Paludan-Müller wove all his variegated impressions of Denmark and of love.

Paludan-Müller wrote considerably after this, but never recovered his early raptures, except in the very latest of all his poems, the enchanting welcome to death, entitled Adonis.

[1] The work of Paludan-Müller, especially Adam Homo in many ways represents the ultimate idealist demands of Danish romanticism.

His strong ethic claims and personal isolation has often made him being compared to the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard in spite of their differences.