The Life of Tomas Tranströmer Tomas Tranströmer was born on April 15, 1931. His parents names were Gösta and Helmy née Westerberg. When Tomas was three years old his parents ended up getting a divorce, which is when Tomas went off to live with his mother in Stockholm Archipelago. The area that Tomas lived is known to be what originally inspired him to start poetry. This area is what really influenced Tomas to specifically write Östersjöar, 1974 (Baltics, 1975). Before Tomas started writing poetry he had an interest in music and even learned how to play the piano. Tranströmers love for music " left significant traces in his writing." Shortly after his first poem was published in his school's magazine in the late 1940's. Tomas did not originally make a career for himself as only being a poet. Once Tomas graduated Stockholm University he went to go work at a youth correctional facility as a psychologist. Then from there for the majority of his career from 1965 to 1990 he worked as a psychologist at the Labor Market Institute in Västerås. "In 1958 Tranströmer married Monica, née Bladh. Their two daughters, Emma and Paula, were born in 1961 and 1964. Right from his debut book 17 dikter (17 poems) in 1954, Tranströmer came to be regarded as the leading Swedish poet of his generation. " At the age of 61 Tranströmer suffered a stroke that completely paralyzed the whole right side of his body, which slowed down his writing quite a bit. Some poems that he finished took him years to finish. From 1965 to 2000 Tranströmer lived in Västerås, Sweden, which is where he received the Tranströmer Prize, which rewards outstanding poetic writing. He then moved back to Stockholm which is where he lived until he died on March 26, 2015 at the age of 83.
Honors and Awards
1966: Bellmanpriset (Bellmanpriset) (Sweden)
1981: Petrarca-Preis (Germany)
1990: Neustadt International Prize for Literature
1990: Nordic Council Literature Prize, for For the Living and the Dead (Nordic countries)
1991: Swedish Academy Nordic Prize (Sweden)
1992: Horst Bienek Prize for Poetry (Horst-Bienek-Preis für Lyrik) (Germany)
1996: Augustpriset, for Sorgegondolen (Sweden)
1998: Jan Smrek Prize (Slovakia)
2003: Struga Poetry Evenings Golden Wreath (Macedonia)
2007: The Griffin Trust, Lifetime Recognition Award (Griffin Poetry Prize) (Canada)
2011: Title of Professor (Swedish: Professors namn), granted by the Cabinet of Sweden (Sweden)
2011: Nobel Prize for Literature (Sweden)
The Couple They switch off the light and its white shade glimmers for a moment before dissolving like a tablet in a glass of darkness. Then up. The hotel walls rise into the black sky. The movements of love have settled, and they sleep but their most secret thoughts meet as when two colours meet and flow into each other on the wet paper of a schoolboy’s painting. It is dark and silent. But the town has pulled closer tonight. With quenched windows. The houses have approached. They stand close up in a throng, waiting, a crowd whose faces have no expressions.
The Couple Analysis The first sentence describes the moment after you turn the lights off and your eyes begin to adjust to the absence of light, not quite able to quickly enough. Quickly shuffling over to your bed, then falling back into it's embrace.
Any intimate contact has fallen way to sleep. They dream the same dreams and are in lock-step in their hopelessness. They are both part of the same empty existence. How are either of them unique in the big picture? They are part of this large "crowd" who are all thinking the same thing, but can do nothing about it.
Outskirts Men in overalls the same color as earth rise from a ditch. It's a transitional place, in stalemate, neither country nor city. Construction cranes on the horizon want to take the big leap, but the clocks are against it. Concrete piping scattered around laps at the light with cold tongues. Auto-body shops occupy old barns. Stones throw shadows as sharp as objects on the moon surface. And these sites keep on getting bigger like the land bought with Judas' silver: 'a potter's field for burying strangers.'
The Outskirts Analysis Change can happen at a breakneck pace when looked at from a distance, but the individual's day to day perception of change is a different beast. We are seeing urbanization as a key focal point to this poem, and the accelerating takeover of small town life into ever sprawling suburbs.
The title "Outskirts" conveys the message of the poem very well, there will always be an "Outskirts" being developed no matter how far we've gone. The urban sprawl will never cease, and the next day is ripe for more "progress" to be made.
Older small town life is increasingly coming to an end, to be replaced by a less real alternative, we are turning our backs on what has got us this far in the name of progress, and is that really the best way forward?