The Siuru literary movement, named after a fire-bird in

Finnic mythology Finnic or Fennic may refer to: * Finnic culture * Finnic languages in the wider sense ** Finnic languages in the narrower sense, i.e. the Baltic Finnic languages * Finnic peoples ** Baltic Finnic peoples, the Finnic peoples historically inhabitin ...

, was founded in 1917 in

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

.Jean Albert Bédé, William Benbow Edgerton, ''Columbia Dictionary of Modern European Literature'', Columbia University Press, 1980, , p237Rubulis, Aleksis. ''Baltic Literature.'' University of Notre Dame Press,1970. It was an

expressionistic Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radi ...

and

neo-romantic The term neo-romanticism is used to cover a variety of movements in philosophy, literature, music, painting, and architecture, as well as social movements, that exist after and incorporate elements from the era of Romanticism. It has been used ...

movement that ran counter to the

Young Estonia Young Estonia () was a neo-romantic literary group established around 1905 and led by the poet Gustav Suits and short story writer Friedebert Tuglas. Other members of the group included Villem Grünthal-Ridala and Johannes Aavik. Gustav Suits ...

formalist tradition.

Members

Along with the founder

August Gailit August Gailit (9 January 1891 – 5 November 1960) was an Estonians, Estonian writer. Life Georg August Gailit was born in Lossiküla, Kuiksilla (near Sangaste Castle), Sangaste Parish (now Otepää Parish), Kreis Dorpat, Governorate of Livonia, ...

, the movement included the following young poets and writers:

Marie Under Marie Under ( – 25 September 1980) was an Estonian poet. She was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 14 separate years. Early life Marie Under was born on 27 March 1883 in Reval (Tallinn), Estonia to school teachers Fri ...

Henrik Visnapuu Henrik Visnapuu ( – 3 April 1951) was an Estonian poet and playwright. Life Henrik Visnapuu was born in Helme Parish, Viljandi County, Livonia. He first attended the village school in Reola (today in Ülenurme Parish) and college in Sipe ...

Johannes Semper Johannes Semper ( – 21 February 1970) was an Estonian poet, writer, translator and politician. He was born in Pahuvere (now Viljandi Parish), Kreis Fellin, in the Governorate of Livonia. A student and later a prominent scholar at the Universi ...

Friedebert Tuglas Friedebert Tuglas, born Friedebert Mihkelson or Michelson (2 March 1886 – 15 April 1971), was an Estonian writer and critic who introduced Impressionism and Symbolism to Estonian literature. Persecuted by the authorities in the beginning of 20t ...

, Peet Aren, Otto Krusten, and Artur Adson. Between 1917 and 1919, Siuru published three volumes of poetry. 1919 led to conflicts within the group. Visnapuu and Gailit left, while Johannes Barbarus and

August Alle August Alle ( – 8 July 1952) was an Estonian writer.Endel Nirk, Arthur Robert Hone, Oleg Mutt, ''Estonian Literature: Historical Survey with Biobibliographical Appendix'', Published by Perioodika, 1987, p. 215. Early life August Alle was the ...

joined as new members.

Program

The members of Siuru had an affinity with

futurism Futurism ( ) was an Art movement, artistic and social movement that originated in Italy, and to a lesser extent in other countries, in the early 20th century. It emphasized dynamism, speed, technology, youth, violence, and objects such as the ...

and

Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage ...

. Their poetry was often seen as scandalous due to their erotic nature. Siuru's philosophy stressed the freedom of the human spirit.

Motto A motto (derived from the Latin language, Latin , 'mutter', by way of Italian language, Italian , 'word' or 'sentence') is a Sentence (linguistics), sentence or phrase expressing a belief or purpose, or the general motivation or intention of a ...

s of the group included ''

Carpe diem () is a Latin aphorism, usually translated "seize the day", taken from book 1 of the Roman poet Horace's work '' Odes'' (23 BC). Translation is the second-person singular present active imperative of '' carpō'' "pick or pluck" used by Ho ...

!'', and ''May the joy of creation be our only moving force'', the latter suggested by

. The group's symbol was white

chrysanthemum Chrysanthemums ( ), sometimes called mums or chrysanths, are flowering plants in the Asteraceae family. They are native to East Asia and northeastern Europe. Most species originate from East Asia, and the center of diversity is in China. Co ...

Significance

A major result of Siuru's activities was popularisation of

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

among Estonian people, leading to the active development of original Estonian literature in the young

Republic of Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

. While the movement itself was short-lived, cut short by Estonian independence and the ensuing movement of national literature, its members rose to be major figures in Estonian literature through Estonia's first period of independence and in the exile Estonian literary community during Soviet occupation. Marie Under (1883–1980) was the leader of the movement, publishing her first book, ''Sonnets'', in 1917. While her expressions of nature found a wide audience, her frank eroticism shocked conservatives, a motif she carried on in her subsequent works. Under went on to a long and distinguished literary career, publishing her last book in 1963. Artur Adson (1889–1977) published his first collection of poems, ''The Burning Soul,'' in 1917. Both this and his next collection, ''Old Lantern'' (1919), consisted of juvenile love poems. Adson went on to widely expand his genre, including dealing with social issues in a classical form. Adson wrote numerous plays. His ''Four Kings,'' a drama on the Estonian uprising of 1343, is considered his most thrilling work. He continued to write in exile, also publishing several books of memoirs, the last in 1953. Adson was Marie Under's second husband.

References

{{Reflist Estonian writers' organizations Expressionism Neo-romanticism 1917 establishments in Estonia Literary circles