Kurimus : Runoja by Yrjö Jylhä is a collection of lyric poems written in the late 1920s. The book explores inner turmoil, eros and guilt, death and fate, and the tension between artistic ideals and everyday reality, using folk motifs, biblical and mythic figures, and flashes of modern urban life to probe moral conflict and longing. The poems unfold in four movements: from childhood visions and a “metamorphosis” into darker seas, to
lullabies for a wayward heart, fatigue, exile, and the shattering of heroic dreams; then to sharp social satires of ideologies and literary cults; then to love lyrics and tales—tenderness edged with cruelty, saxophone-bright travel reveries, St. George saving a princess, a shared quest toward a “blue mountain,” dreams of spring, and visitations by Death; and finally to a confessional descent where jealousy and lust speak plainly. The last part gathers stark scenes of obsession and violence, pleas and prayers that mix blasphemy with yearning, a beast within that cannot be gentled, and images of neon-lit nights, damning letters, and sailors burned by the sun who never truly return. Together the sequence sketches a soul wrestling with desire and conscience, reaching for grace while circling a fatal whirlpool. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
