Emile Verhaeren

Emile (and not Emile) Adolphe Gustave Verhaeren , born with Saint-Amand in the Province of Antwerp on May 21st, 1855 in literature and died with Rouen on November 27th, 1916 in literature, is a Belgian poet “fransquillon”, i.e. Flemish of French expression. In its poems influenced by the symbolism, where it practices the free Verse, its social conscience makes him evoke the big cities about which it speaks with lyricism on a tone about a great musical quality. It knew to translate in its work the beauty of the human effort.

Biography

Verhaeren was born in Saint-Amand ( Sint-Amands in Dutch), at the edge of the the Scheldt, in an easy family where French was spoken, while at the village and the school Flemish reigned. He attended initially the French-speaking boarding school Holy-Bores, held by Jesuits with Ghent, then he studied the right in the old woman the University of Louvain. It is there that it met the circle of the writers who animated the Young person Belgium and it published into 1879 the first articles of its vintage in reviews of students.

Each week, the socialist writer Edmond Picard held with Brussels a living room where the Verhaeren young person could meet writers and artists of avant-garde. At this point in time it decided to give up a legal career and to become writer. It published critical poems and articles in the Belgian and foreign reviews, inter alia the Modern art and the Young person Belgium . Like art critic, it supported young artists such as James Ensor.

In 1883, it published its first collection of poems realistic-naturalists, Flemish the , devoted to its native land. Accommodated with enthusiasm by the avant-garde, the work made scandal with the native land. His/her parents tried even with the assistance of the priest of the village to buy the totality of pulling and to destroy it. The scandal had been an unavowed goal of the poet, in order to more quickly become known. It did not continue any less thereafter to publish other books of poetries. Poems Symbolists with the lugubrious tone characterize these collections, the Monks , the Evenings , the Routs and the black Torches .

In 1891, it married Marthe Massin, painter known for his watercolours, of which it had made knowledge two years earlier, and settled in Brussels. Its love for it is expressed in three collections of poems of love: clear Hours , Hours of afternoon and Hours of the evening .

In the Years 1890, Verhaeren was interested in the social questions and the socialist theories and worked to return in its poems the atmosphere of the big city and its opposite, the life in the countryside. It expressed its visions of a new time in collections like the hallucinated Campaigns , the sprawling Towns , the illusory Villages and in its play the Paddles . These poems returned it celebrates, and its work was translated and commented on in the whole world. He travelled to make readings and conferences in most of Europe. Many artists, poets and writers like Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, Auguste Rodin, Edgar Degas, August Vermeylen, Henry van of Velde, Maurice Maeterlinck, Stephan Mallarmé, Andre Gide, To groove Maria Rilke, Gostan Zarian and Stefan Zweig admired it, corresponded with him, sought to attend it and translated it. The artists related to the Futurisme were subject to its influence. Emile Verhaeren was also a personal friend of the king Albert and the queen Elisabeth; he regularly attended all the residences of the royal family.

When in 1914 the First World War burst and that, in spite of its neutrality, Belgium was occupied by the German troops, Verhaeren was in Germany and was at the top of its glory. He wrote pacifist poems and fought against the madness of the war in the lyric anthologies: bloody Belgium , Among Ashes and red Wings of the War . Its faith in a better future was tinted during the conflict of an increasing resignation. It did not publish any less in reviews of propaganda anti-allemandes and tried in its conferences to reinforce the friendship between France, Belgium and the the United Kingdom. After one of these conferences in Rouen, he died accidentally, having been pushed by crowd, many, under the wheels of a train which left .

The French government wanted to honor it by burying it with the the Pantheon, but the family refused and made it bury with the military cemetery of Adinkerke. Because of the danger which the projection of the troops represented, its remainders were still transferred during the war to Wulveringem before being in 1927 definitively buried in its native village of Saint-Amand where since 1955 a museum, the provincial Musée Emile Verhaeren, recalls his memory.

Works

; Principal Flemish collections ; Work criticizes
  • James Ensor
  • Rembrandt
  • Monet
; Theater
  • the cloister (drama in four acts).

example: Each hour, where I think of your kindness

Each hour, where I think of your kindness So simply deep, I merge in prayers towards you.

I came so late Towards the softness of your glance, And of so far towards your two helping hands, Quietly, by through the extents!

I had in me tough rust so much Who corroded me with teeth raptors, Confidence I was so heavy, I were so tired I was so old of mistrust, I was so heavy, I were so tired Vain way of all my steps.

I deserved if little the marvellous joy To see your feet illuminating my way, That I remain about it trembling still and almost in tears And humble forever, opposite happiness.

Quotations

Poetry is most perilous of arts, because the poet has the choice only between the sublime one and the ridicule.

Have higher hearts, more perfect gestures. And done better than what we have fait.

The world is made with stars and hommes.

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