A Cynical View from a Balcony in Paris

Jan Oskar Hansen successfully handles a wide variety of subjects in his new collection. His genius lies in correlating lyricism with human psychology and experience. This makes his poems so remarkable. His poetry draws its sustenance from the inner soul of words. He is one of the very greatest of all contemporary poets. A pensive sweetness and freshness pervades his poems that give him an original place in world poetry.