Emil Aarestrup

Carl Ludvig Emil Aarestrup (Copenhagen, 1800 - Odense, 1856) was a Danish physician and poet who lived in the uneasy years after the Napoleonic Wars, a period of economic ruin for Denmark. He practised medicine for most of his life, but today he is remembered mainly for his love poetry, which places him among the most distinctive voices in Danish literature.

He was born in Store Kongensgade in Copenhagen. After his parents separated and both died shortly afterwards, he was raised by an elderly local woman and by his grandfather, a dealer in tea and porcelain. He studied medicine at the University of Copenhagen and qualified in 1827, the same year he married his cousin Caroline Aagard, who was fifteen. The couple settled in Nysted, on the island of Lolland, where he ran a practice. He later took better-paid posts and in 1849 moved to Odense, where he spent the rest of his life. The family grew large, and it was later discovered that he had also fathered an illegitimate daughter, circumstances that strained his home life.

He wrote poems in his spare time and saw only one book published during his lifetime, Digte, which drew little notice from critics. His short, carefully shaped poems combine a frankness unusual in Danish verse of his day with a teasing, witty tone, and at times a quiet fear of death and vanity. As a craftsman of verse he was influenced by Friedrich Rückert, but he developed a form of his own. His Efterladte digte (1863) appeared after his death and helped establish his reputation.

His recognition came late. Although he was largely overlooked in his own time, he is now regarded as one of the most influential Danish poets and is still read in Denmark. Many critics see him as an important forerunner of Sophus Claussen.