Abstract
The article discusses how the poem “Sjömansvisa” (Sailor's song), which was published by the prolific Finland-Swedish writer and scholar Arvid Mörne as part of his first collection of poetry Rytm och rim (Rhythm and rhymes) in 1899, was transformed into the wide-spread and popular song “Båklandets vackra Maja” (Beautiful May of Båkland). The song remains extremely popular, whereas Mörne himself and his other writings have been all but forgotten by the general public. This, I argue, is the result of the happy melody, composed by the teacher Hanna Hagbom in 1906. It is the song, and particularly the tune, not the poem, that has lasted. The article suggests that the interpretation of Mörne's poem as sunnier than most of his other poems results not from the verbal properties of the poem as such, but rather from the sonic and prosodic aspects of the poem-as-song. In other words, the text of the poem has been overshadowed by the tune. Moreover, the ways in which Swedish Finland has over and over again been constructed as territory through Mörne's utilization of stereotypical images of women (in this case “Maja”), and not only of (male) peasants and fishermen, has been neglected.