A grook () is a form of short aphoristic
poem
Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...
or rhyming
aphorism
An aphorism (from Greek ἀφορισμός: ''aphorismos'', denoting 'delimitation', 'distinction', and 'definition') is a concise, terse, laconic, or memorable expression of a general truth or principle. Aphorisms are often handed down by tra ...
created by the Danish poet, designer, inventor, and scientist
Piet Hein. He wrote over 7,000 of them from 1939 until his death in 1996, mostly in Danish. The grooks are multi-faceted and characterized by
irony
Irony, in its broadest sense, is the juxtaposition of what, on the surface, appears to be the case with what is actually or expected to be the case. Originally a rhetorical device and literary technique, in modernity, modern times irony has a ...
,
paradox
A paradox is a logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to one's expectation. It is a statement that, despite apparently valid reasoning from true or apparently true premises, leads to a seemingly self-contradictor ...
, brevity, precise use of language, rhythm and
rhyme
A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually the exact same phonemes) in the final Stress (linguistics), stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of rhyming (''perfect rhyming'') is consciou ...
, and an often
satiric
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposing or ...
nature. Many of the grooks have an accompanying line drawing, which provides additional meaning.
Some say that the name "''gruk''" is short for "''grin & suk''" (), but Piet Hein said he felt that the word had come out of thin air. The contemporary "''Hunden Grog''" ("Grog the Dog") stories by fellow cartoonist
Storm P. have, in public opinion, been regarded as an inspiration.
Grooks as passive resistance
Piet Hein was president of the Anti-Nazi Union when the Germans invaded Denmark in 1940. He became an underground passive resister. He found a way to encourage resistance
through the use of poems, which he called "gruks" ("grooks" in English),
and began publishing them in the daily newspaper "''
Politiken
''Politiken'' is a leading Danish daily broadsheet newspaper, published by JP/Politikens Hus in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was founded in 1884 and played a role in the formation of the Danish Social Liberal Party. Since 1970 it has been indepe ...
''" under the pseudonym
"Kumbel Kumbell".
Grooks in English
Beginning in the 1960s, seven volumes of English translations of 53 grooks each (all translated by
Jens Arup) were published and became popular in the U.S.
counterculture
A counterculture is a culture whose values and norms of behavior differ substantially from those of mainstream society, sometimes diametrically opposed to mainstream cultural mores.Eric Donald Hirsch. ''The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy''. Ho ...
of the time:
* ''Grooks'' (1966)
* ''Grooks 2'' (1968)
* ''Grooks 3'' (1970)
* ''Grooks 4'' (1972)
* ''Grooks 5'' (1973)
* ''Grooks VI'' (1978)
* ''Grooks VII'' (1984)
, Piet Hein and/or his estate have also published the following books of grooks:
* ''Collected Grooks I'' (2002)
* ''Collected Grooks II'' (2002)
* ''Runaway Runes: Short Grooks I''
* ''Viking Vistas: Short Grooks II''
References
External links
* {{cite magazine , last=Hicks , first=Jim , title=A Poet with a Slide Rule: Piet Hein Bestrides Art and Science , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lFYEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA55 , magazine= Life , volume=51 , issue=16 , date=14 October 1966 , pages=55–66 , issn=0024-3019
Grooks – LeptonicaPoetry Soup- Grook poems
Genres of poetry
Culture of Denmark