Poetry
Eerste gedichten
Not translated into English
Albrecht Rodenbach · 1878
Synopsis
A small collection of student verse, published in Roeselare. It contains the song of the Blauwvoet, the storm bird whose cry became the rallying word of a Flemish youth, the ballad of the child of the Kerels, those free peasants of medieval Flanders, and a poem about Sneyssens. Two pages of seascapes, taken from a drama in preparation, show a young girl alone on the beach before her flight, then a storm over an island. A review of 1879 noted in it the warmth of religious feeling and a colourful imagination.
Context
The collection, of about a hundred pages, is the only book to appear during its author's lifetime. His play, awarded a prize in Antwerp in 1878, was not printed until 1882; his poems were gathered in 1888, then in a complete edition in 1909, the year his statue was unveiled at Roulers. His militant songs were taken up by Flemish Catholic youth in the 1880s, and the school revolt of 1875, born of one of his poems, is regarded as the starting point of the struggle for Dutch in secondary education.
Who it is for
A slim volume of verse in Dutch tinged with West Flemish, with an eloquence aimed at the audience; no French or English translation has been found.
Prizes and reception
The only book published by a poet whose name has become a motto of the Flemish movement; reprinted in 1980.
Sources for this page 4
The pages consulted to check this page.