Carl Gustaf af Leopold

Carl Gustaf af Leopold ( born April 3, 1756 in Stockholm, † November 9, 1829 ) was a Swedish poet and writer.

He was born under the name Carl Gustaf Leopoldt. His father was a customs official. He grew up in Norrköping. From 1773 he studied in Uppsala. After his studies he worked as a private tutor. Leopold first came out with typical contemporary tribute poems and made a name in 1778 with a poem on the birth of Gustav Adolf Kronzprinzen. Leopold was a representative of the Swedish Enlightenment and wrote poems in the style of the French classicism. In Thomas Thorild Leopold fought the hated his Sturm und Drang.

Carl Gustaf af Leopold was a close associate of King Gustav III. , Especially after the withdrawal of Johan Henrik Kellgren. 1786 Leopold was a founding member of the Royal Swedish Academy donated by. Leopold was appointed by the king to the court secretary. Carl Michael Bellman Leopold devoted one of his most beautiful songs ( Hvila vid Denna källa, Fredmans epistle No. 82).

In addition to poetry Leopold also wrote dramas, short stories and hymns.

Leopold it to compete under different regimes succeeded. After the assassination of Gustav III. he was under the subsequent regency of Duke Carl and Baron Gustaf Adolf Reuterholm equally well regarded as under the autocratic rule of the king Gustav IV Adolf and constitutional monarchy after the coup of 1809. 1801 wrote Leopold on behalf of the Swedish Academy, a standard-setting book on the spelling of the Swedish language. 1809 Leopold was involved in the drafting of the article on freedom of the press in the Swedish constitution. In the same year he was knighted, and took the name af Leopold on. In 1821 he became blind.

Leopold remained his whole life to the spirit of the Enlightenment and the French inspired classicism faithful. This earned him the admiration Tegnérs, but the reluctance of the Romantics.

Esaias Tegnér characterized Leopold aptly in his poem on the 50th anniversary of the Swedish Academy:

( And he, of the long line of singers [ from the time of the founding of the Academy ] castle / and lived long enough to mourn them / a Rosary with thorns between the sheets. / The Friend of pleasure, frolic, thought, the friend of Gustav [III. ]. / He in the guild of ways wore the crown, / a with laurel -winning veteran in the service of knowledge, / might not be the best as a poet, but as the best mind / the Noble wanted and was what he wanted, / the blind seer Tiresias [ an allusion to the blind seer Theresa from Greek mythology ] Leopold. )