ABSTRACT
The poem had been introduced to Finland in a partial translation in 1959. Firstly, the appropriation of Beat literature in Finland has to be related to the internal evolution of the literary field of the country and especially to discussions of poetic discourse and the role of the poet. Among the Finnish poets, Anselm Hollo had the closest ties with American Beat authors. This creative appropriation and interpretation of Beat is particularly striking in the poem "Superman as Child". Superman in this respect is to be compared with the Prince Valiant, Heracles, and Ulysses mentioned later in the poem. The shared sense of restlessness driven by desire and/or despair and so characteristic of Beat as mapped by Ginsberg, here is adapted to Kejonen's own life and world. In "Divine Comedy I", Into attacks hypocrisy and sense of captivity that characterize the "system".
