The article is an attempt to put Gunnar Björling's radical modernist poetry in the tradition of the idyllic genre. The strong link to this tradition is the fundamental role of place in the poetry of Björling. However, place, and more specifically Björling's home in Brunnsparken in Helsinki, is in general not only the point of departure of his poems. The local setting, while never abandoned, is at the same time widened in the name of ethical universalism. This inner conflict, emphazised by his innovative ungrammaticalies, makes Björling's relation to the idyllic tradition full of tensions.