Kaarlo Kramsu was a Finnish poet and journalist. He studied history and Finnish language at the University of Helsinki without graduating. He worked as a journalist for different papers in different places. He got mentally ill in 1891 and suffered from syphilis. He died at the mental hospital of Niuvaniemi, Kuopio, at the age of 39.
He is best remembered for his nationalistic ballads and poems marked with a hopeless mood. His work reflects his lonely and restless life: he has been held as the darkest poet in Finnish history.