SOURCE: Gray, Charlotte Schiander. “Lyrical Debut” In Klaus Rifbjerg, pp. 3-12. New York: Greenwood Press, 1986.

In the following essay, Gray details Klaus Rifbjerg's life and works, focusing on Under vejr med mig selv his first collection of poetry.

Biographical Background

Rifbjerg's biography, as such, is very undramatic, but he has an almost uncanny ability for the sensuous reproduction of basic and normal life occurrences so that they continue to offer new insights. And although the available biographical facts themselves are quite limited, Rifbjerg's recollection and recreation of them seem boundless.

Rifbjerg belongs to that subjectivist tradition where the individual feels he can speak with authority only if he speaks on behalf of himself. But as Rifbjerg has pointed out on various occasions, for example in an interview with Per Øhrgaard, “If you really tell about yourself, then what you have in common with others is also bound to...