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Grooks

Piet Hein, Grooks. Doubleday, 1969. Courtesy Amazon.com.

A grook ("gruk" in Danish) is a form of short aphoristic poem or rhyming aphorism, created by Danish poet, designer, inventor and scientist Piet Hein, who wrote over 7000 of them, mostly in Danish or English. They have been published in 20 volumes.

Background[]

Hein, a direct descendant of Piet Pieterszoon Hein, the 17th century Dutch naval hero, was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. He studied at the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the University of Copenhagen (later to become the Niels Bohr Institute), and Technical University of Denmark. Yale awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1972. He died in his home on Funen, Denmark in 1996.[1]

Hein's gruks began to appear in daily newspaper "Politiken" shortly after the Nazi Occupation in April 1940, under the signature Kumbel Kumbell. The poems were meant as a spirit-building, yet slightly coded form of passive resistance.

Hein found himself confronted with a dilemma when the Germans occupied Denmark. He felt that he had 3 choices: Do nothing; flee to neutral Sweden; or join the Danish resistance movement. As he explained in 1968: "Sweden was out because I am not Swedish, but Danish. I could not remain at home because, if I had, every knock at the door would have sent shivers up my spine. So, I joined the Resistance."[2]

Taking as his weapon the instrument with which he was most familiar, the pen, he wrote and had published his erarliest "grook". It passed the censors who did not grasp its real meaning.

CONSOLATION GROOK

Losing one glove
is certainly painful,
but nothing
compared to the pain
of losing one,
throwing away the other,
and finding
the first one again.

The Danes, however, understood its importance and soon it was found as graffiti all around the country. The deeper meaning of the grook was that even if you lose your freedom ("losing one glove"), do not lose your patriotism and self-respect by collaborating with the Nazis ("throwing away the other"), because that sense of having betrayed your country will be more painful when freedom has been found again someday.[1]

Hein said he felt that the name "gruk" had come out of thin air. The contemporary "Hunden Grog" (Grog the Dog) stories by fellow cartoonist Storm P. has, in public opinion, been regarded as an inspiration.

Form[]

Hein's grooks are multi-faceted and characterized by irony, paradox, brevity, precise use of language, rhythm, and rhyme, and an often satiric nature.

Examples[]

    THE ROAD TO WISDOM

The road to wisdom?—Well, it's plain
and simple to express:
                   Err
                   and err
                   and err again,
                   but less
                   and less
                   and less.
                           — Piet Hein

   Taking fun as simply fun
     and earnestness in earnest
   Shows how thoroughly thou
     none of the two discernest
                           — Piet Hein

   Problems worthy of attack, prove their worth by hitting back
                           — Piet Hein

    It may be observed, in a general way,
      that life would be better, distinctly
    If more of the people with nothing to say
      were able to say it succinctly
                            — Piet Hein

See also[]

References[]

Notes[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Piet Hein (scientist), Wikipedia, January 31, 2020. Web, Mar. 20, 2020.
  2. Piet Hein biography Pamono Design

External links[]

Examples
Books
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