Lenngren, Anna Maria

(1754-1817)

   A Swedish poet of the Enlightenment, Lenngren is still very popular in her native country. This is no doubt in part due to the colloquial style in which she wrote, as well as to the humor and gentle Horatian satire of her view of life. Born into a well-educated family—her father taught Latin at Uppsala University—she distanced herself from the pietistic religious views of her home and appears to have been happy with her middle-class life. She married Carl Petter Lenngren, who was associated with the newspaper Stockholms Posten (The Stockholm Post), and for many years she wrote anonymously for the paper. Two of her satirical poems are "Min salig man" (My Blessed Departed Husband), a poem about a drunkard, and "Ngra ord till min kara Dotter, i fall jag hade nagon" (A Few Words to My Dear Daughter, in Case I Had One), which offers satirical "advice" to a young woman. Lenngren would not allow her poetry to be published in book form while she was alive, but Skaldeforsok (1819; Poetic Attempts) came out after her death.