The Atom Poets were a group of Iceland

Iceland

Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...

ic modernist

Modernist literature

Modernist literature is sub-genre of Modernism, a predominantly European movement beginning in the early 20th century that was characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional aesthetic forms...

 poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

s, the five most prominent of which were Einar Bragi

Einar Bragi

Einar Bragi was an Icelandic poet and publisher. He was a modernist who founded and edited the journal Birtingur, the leading forum for modernism in Iceland at the time.Bragi published nine books of poetry between 1950 and 1980. He is known as one of the Atom Poets...

, Hannes Sigfússon

Hannes Sigfússon

Hannes Sigfússon was an Icelandic poet and writer. He was an editor of Birtingur the journal of the Atom Poets.In addition to his poetry Sigfússon published novels and memoirs and been active as a translator.- Some works :Dymbilvaka. 1949...

, Jón Óskar

Jón Óskar

Jón Óskar was an Icelandic poet born in Akranes.Óskar is typically categorised as one of the Icelandic Atom Poets. In addition to his poetry he and his short stories, literary articles and a novel he also produced a multi-volumed biography. He was a musician and this influenced the sound of his...

, Sigfús Daðason

Sigfús Daðason

Sigfús Daðason was one of the more notable 20th century Icelandic poets.It has been claimed that he "changed the poetic landscape in Iceland". He was one of the pioneers of the Modern movement...

 and Stefán Hörður Grímsson

Stefán Hörður Grímsson

Stefán Hörður Grímsson was an Icelandic modernist, one of the so-called Atom Poets. His first book of poetry came out in 1946, but he gained attention for his second book of poems in 1951; he published a third book of poetry in 1970.-External links:*...

, who all began their careers in the 1940s and 1950s.

The term was coined by Halldór Laxness

Halldór Laxness

Halldór Kiljan Laxness was a twentieth-century Icelandic writer. Throughout his career Laxness wrote poetry, newspaper articles, plays, travelogues, short stories, and novels...

, a rather conservative Icelandic writer and critic, in his 1948 novel The Atom Station

The Atom Station

The Atom Station is a novel by Icelandic author Halldór Laxness, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1955.- Background :“The Atom Station”, written in 1946 and 1947, was published in 1948. The historical background of the novel is composed of the British Occupation of Iceland during...

--"the atom poet in the novel is a bad poet and a less than sympathetic character." The name, at first used pejoratively, stuck, and came to mean all poetry written in a non-traditional manner. In contrast, the atom poets' work is more complex and introspective, requiring more effort from the reader. Influenced by French surrealism

Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....

 (Bragi had translated some of their texts into Icelandic), these poets revolutionized Icelandic poetry, replacing the "old poetic traditions of meter, alliteration, and stylized 'poetic' diction" with "free verse and other features of the 'international' style."

The Atom Poets did not have a manifesto and were never an organized movement, though some of them collaborated on the editorial board of the "main forum for Icelandic modernists," Birtingur, founded in 1953 by Einar Bragi.