Max Elskamp

max Elskamp is a Belgian poet born and died in Antwerp (May 5th 1862 - December 10th 1931).

His/her father was Flemish and his Walloon mother. It was a family of good catholic middle-class. The poet left his town of Antwerp little: studies of right to Brussels, a voyage by cargo liner in 1887 along the Atlantic coasts and until in Italy, and during the war of 1914 when it had to take refuge in Holland (which can seem close, but it suffered from this exile and one entitled book Under the tents of the exile devoted to it! ).

Being able to live without money worries, he devoted himself to poetry for two periods of his life: from 1886 to 1901, and 1920 until its death. The style remains the same one during these two time. The poet expresses himself in distiches or quatrains, in short worms, and in a strange language influenced by Franco-Dutch bilingualism, the popular song, perhaps also by these manners of speaking which affected Mallarmé or Verlaine. An example ( the Woman ):

But now comes a woman,

And at the time here that one will like,

But now comes a woman

And at the time here that one will cry,

And then that one all will give him

his house and of his heart,

And then that one all will give him

And at the time after one will cry

Because now comes a woman,

With its lips to like,

Because now comes a woman

With her flesh all in beauty,

And of the dresses to show it

On balconies, on terraces,

And dresses to show it

With those which go, to those which pass,

Because now comes a woman

According to her life for kisses,

Because now comes a woman,

to take pleasure in it and from to go away.

He also impassioned himself for the Bouddhisme, the Flemish Folklore, and the Gravure.

Its last years transfer it to lose the head.

Works

the Japanese Range , Antwerp, h.c., 1886
Stylite in Wallonia , 1891 Sunday
, illustrated per H. Van de Velde, Antwerp and Brussels, Lacomblez, 1892
Salutations, of which Angelica , Brussels, Lacomblez, 1893
In Symbol towards the apostolate , Brussels, Lacomblez, 1894
Six Songs of poor fellow to celebrate the week of Flanders , Brussels, Lacomblez, 1898
the Praise of the life (collective collection), Mercure de France, 1898
Illuminations , Brussels, Lacomblez, 1898
the Alphabet of Notre-Dame the Virgin , Antwerp, Buschmann, 1901
Comments and ideography of the play of lotto in Flandres , A. of Tavernier, Antwerp, 1918 (gone back to 1914)
Under the tents of the exodus , Brussels, Robert Sand, 1921
disillusioned Songs , Brussels, G. Van Oest, 1922
the Song of the street Saint-Paul , Antwerp, Buschmann, h.c., 1922
Seven Notre-Dame of the most beautiful trades , Antwerp, A. of Tavemier, 1923
Delectatio morosas , Brussels, G. Van Oest, 1923
Songs of Tacks , Antwerp, Buschmann, 1923.
Maya , Antwerp, Buschmann, 1923
Remembrances , Antwerp, Buschmann, 1924
Aegri Somnia , Antwerp, Buschmann, 1924

Posthumous:

Eight songs reverdies , NRF, 1932
green Flowers , Brussels, New business of Edition, 1934
fair Joys , Brussels, New business of Edition, 1934
yellow Hours , in complete Works , ED. Bernard Delvaille, Seghers, 1967
Effigies , Fata Morgana, 1989 (ISBN 2851941992)

Republications:

Songs and Enluminures , Brussels, Jacques Antoine, 1980
the Song of the street Saint-Paul preceded by Under the tents of the exodus and by Aegri Somnia , Brussels, Labor, 1987 (ISBN 2804002470)
the Praise of the life , Orphée/La Difference, 1997
the Song of the street Saint-Paul , Songs of Tacks , Delectatio morosas , Aegri Somnia , Poetry/Gallimard, 1997 (ISBN 2070329704)

External bonds

Presentation, complete texts of certain books, homages paid to the poet, etc
Another note
funds and the library max Elskamp with ULB

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