This paper sets out to investigate if there are any common factors between the childhood and religious perception with the Swedish poet Gunnar Ekelöf and if so, which are they and how can they be explained? To help in this understanding and explanation, theoretical pieces from psychoanalysis, egopsychology and the personality model are used as tools of interpretation. Psychoanalysis comes foremost from Freud, egopsychology from his successors and the personality model (swe. personlighetsmodellen) from the Swedish scientist in psychology of religion Antoon Geels. While looking at the biographical background, archives and poetry of Gunnar Ekelöf, these common factors becomes clear and with the aid of theory they are explained and understood. The results are discussed and put in context to prior research.

In this MA-thesis, I investigate the usage of musical terminology in the study of modern, post-metric poetry. I present the theoretical field «musico-literary studies», and point to some examples of inconsistent vocabulary in the critical debate on musicalized poetry. I also examine the effectiveness of the musical analogy in the analysis of poetic texts, and put this to the test in three textual analyses: «Some soldier wrote» by Ursula Andkjær Olsen, «Absentia animi» by Gunnar Ekelöf and Solaris korrigert by Øyvind Rimbereid. The thesis concludes that the musical analogy and the use of a musical vocabulary should be used with some care. Although it can often highlight interesting compositional and even thematic aspects of poetic texts, the analogy only becomes fully functional when the text is structured by the same principles as the musical form in question.

With this essay, I mean to investigate if the poetry of the Swedish poet, writer and cultural elitist Gunnar Ekelöf shows signs and meanings of a mystical character. First, I research and compare the theories of Nathan Söderblom, Hjalmar Sundén and Antoon Geels about mysticism and use these in my interpretation of Ekelöfs poetry. It soon becomes clear that Ekelöf is a person with an inner religious reality and in context with the definition of mysticism this essay presents and uses, it goes to show that his poetry can be seen as mystical and furthermore that Ekelöf himself can be considered a mystic. This essay, leads to a discussion about a wider interpretation of mysticism and that mysticism can be seen in poetry.