{{short description|Form of poetry created by Danish polymath Piet Hein}}
A '''grook''' ({{langx|da|'''gruk'''}}) is a form of short aphoristic poem or rhyming aphorism created by the Danish poet, designer, inventor, and scientist Piet Hein. He wrote over 7,000 of them from 1939 until his death in 1996, mostly in Danish{{refn|This webpage<ref name="Database of Gruks">{{Cite web |url=https://piethein.dk/gruk-database1/ |title= Database of Gruks |publisher=piethein.com |date= |accessdate=}}</ref> is a database of over 7,000 gruks by Piet Hein, in Danish. The page says (in Danish) that you can freely search it and have them emailed directly to you.}}. The grooks are multi-faceted and characterized by irony, paradox, brevity, precise use of language, rhythm and rhyme, and an often satiric nature. Many of the grooks have an accompanying line drawing, which provides additional meaning.
Some say that the name "''gruk''" is short for "'''''gr'''in & s'''uk'''''" ({{lit|laugh & sigh}}), but Piet Hein said he felt that the word had come out of thin air.{{cn|date=August 2024}} The contemporary "''Hunden Grog''" ("Grog the Dog") stories by fellow cartoonist Storm P. have, in public opinion, been regarded as an inspiration.{{cn|date=August 2024}}
==Grooks as passive resistance== Piet Hein was president of the Anti-Nazi Union when the Germans invaded Denmark in 1940.{{refn|A long article in Life Magazine<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Hicks |first=Jim |title=A Poet with a Slide Rule: Piet Hein Bestrides Art and Science |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lFYEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA55 |magazine= Life |volume=51 |issue=16 |date=14 October 1966 |pages=55–66 |issn=0024-3019}}</ref> talks about Piet Hein's becoming a passive resister beginning on page 63. It corroborates what is said here. At the time, he thought there would be 4-5 grooks, not the ~7,000 that he later wrote.}} He became an underground passive resister. He found a way to encourage resistance through the use of poems, which he called "gruks" ("grooks" in English), and began publishing them in the daily newspaper "''Politiken''" under the pseudonym "Kumbel Kumbell"{{refn| "Here is the reason why: Piet is the Dutch form of the name Peter or Petrus, which means rock, stone, and Hein is a way of spelling 'hen', the old Danish word for a whetstone. 'Kumbel', or 'kumbl' as it strictly speaking should be written, also means stone, though more a grave monument. In other words, Piet Hein, or Stone Stone can, in a way, be translated by Kumbel Kumbel. He originally wrote the second word with two Ls, also later the signature became just Kumbel – the name he is at least as well known by as his own."<ref>[http://www.piethein.com/usr/piethein/HomepagUK.nsf/webdocs/2e8962af9e1fffeac1256c860039c7eb?OpenDocument&ExpandSection=1 piethein.com] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100804202919/http://www.piethein.com/usr/piethein/HomepagUK.nsf/webdocs/2e8962af9e1fffeac1256c860039c7eb?OpenDocument&ExpandSection=1 |date=4 August 2010 }}</ref>}}.
==Grooks in English== Beginning in the 1960s, seven volumes of English translations of 53 grooks each (all translated by Jens Arup) were published and became popular{{cn|date=August 2024}} in the U.S. counterculture of the time: * ''Grooks'' (1966)<ref>{{cite book |title=Grooks |year=1966 |author=Piet Hein |translator=Jens Arup |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0262580076 |url=https://archive.org/details/grooksbypiethein0000piet}}</ref> * ''Grooks 2'' (1968)<ref>{{cite book |title=Grooks 2 |year=1968 |author=Piet Hein |translator=Jens Arup |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=978-8741810942}}</ref> * ''Grooks 3'' (1970)<ref>{{cite book |title=Grooks 3 |year=1970 |author=Piet Hein |translator=Jens Arup |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=978-0773610040}}</ref> * ''Grooks 4'' (1972)<ref>{{cite book |title=Grooks 4 |year=1972 |author=Piet Hein |translator=Jens Arup |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=978-0385006590 |url=https://archive.org/details/grooks40000hein}}</ref> * ''Grooks 5'' (1973)<ref>{{cite book |title=Grooks 5 |year=1973 |author=Piet Hein |translator=Jens Arup |publisher=Doubleday |isbn=978-0385029681 |url=https://archive.org/details/grooks00hein}}</ref> * ''Grooks VI'' (1978)<ref>{{cite book |title=Grooks VI |year=1978 |author=Piet Hein |translator=Jens Arup |publisher=Borgen's Pocketbooks |isbn=978-8741846811}}</ref> * ''Grooks VII'' (1984)<ref>{{cite book |title=Grooks VII |year=1984 |author=Piet Hein |translator=Jens Arup |publisher=Borgen's Pocketbooks |isbn=978-8741871639}}</ref>
{{As of|2024}}, Piet Hein and/or his estate have also published the following books of grooks:<ref name="PH.com">{{cite web |url=https://piethein.com/shop/34-books-in-other-language/ |title=Books in English |website=PietHein.com |accessdate=2024-08-05}}</ref>
* ''Collected Grooks I'' (2002)<ref>{{cite book |title=Collected Grooks I |year=2002 |author=Piet Hein |editor=Hugo Piet Hein |publisher=Borgen |edition=2nd |isbn=87-21-01859-6}}</ref> * ''Collected Grooks II'' (2002)<ref>{{cite book |title=Collected Grooks II |year=2002 |author=Piet Hein |editor=Hugo Piet Hein |publisher=Borgen |edition=2nd |isbn=87-21-01861-8}}</ref> * ''Runaway Runes: Short Grooks I''<ref>{{cite book |title=Runaway Runes: Short Grooks I |author=Piet Hein |editor=Jens Arup |publisher=Borgen |isbn=87-418-2620-5}}</ref> * ''Viking Vistas: Short Grooks II''<ref>{{cite book |title=Viking Vistas: Short Grooks II |author=Piet Hein |editor=Jens Arup |publisher=Borgen |isbn=87-418-5639-2}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{cite magazine |last=Hicks |first=Jim |title=A Poet with a Slide Rule: Piet Hein Bestrides Art and Science |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lFYEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA55 |magazine= Life |volume=51 |issue=16 |date=14 October 1966 |pages=55–66 |issn=0024-3019}} *[http://www.archimedes-lab.org/grooks.html Grooks – Leptonica] *[http://www.leptonica.com/cachedpages/grooks/grooks.html Grooks] *[http://www.phys.ufl.edu/~thorn/grooks.html Grooks in English by Piet Hein] *[http://www.poetrysoup.com/poems/best/grook Poetry Soup- Grook poems]
Category:Genres of poetry Category:Culture of Denmark