Contemporary Belgian Poetry Part 37

Edwards (Osman), emile Verhaeren, _The Savoy_, Nov. 1897.

Gilbert (Eugene), Iwan Gilkin, Vanderpoorten, Ghent, 1908.

Gilkin (Iwan), Quinze Annees de Litterature, _la jeune Belgique,_ Dec.

1895.

----Les Origines Estudiantines de la "jeune Belgique" a l'Universite de Louvain, Editions de la Belgique artistique et litteraire, Brussels, 1909.

Gosso (Edmund), French Profiles, London, 1905.

----The Romance of Fairyland, with a note on a Belgian Ariosto, _The Standard_, 27th March 1908.

Harry (Gerard), Maurice Maeterlinck, translated by Alfred Allinson, London, 1910.

Hauser (Otto), Die belgische Lyrik von 1880-1900, Groszenhain, 1902.

Horrent (Desire), Ecrivains belges d'aujourd'hui, Lacomblez, Brussels, 1904.

Kinon (Victor), Portraits d'auteurs, Dechenne et Cie., Brussels, 1910.

Maeterlinck (Georgette Leblanc), Maeterlinck's Methods of Life and Work, _Contemporary Review_, Nov. 1910.

Mockel (Albert), emile Verhaeren, Mercure de Franco, 1895.

----Charles van Lerberghe, Mercure de France, 1904.

Ramaekers (George), emile Verhaeren, Edition de "La Lutte," Brussels, 1900.

Rency (Georges), Physionomies litteraires, Dechenne et Cie., Brussels, 1907.

Schlaf (Johannes), emile Verhaeren, vol. x.x.xviii. of "Die Dichtung,"

Berlin, 1905.

Symons (Arthur), The Dawn by emile Verhaeren, London, 1898.

----The Symbolist Movement in Literature, London, 1908.

Thompson (Vance), French Portraits, Boston, 1900.

Verhaeren (emile), Les Lettres francaises en Belgique, Lamertin, Brussels, 1907.

Visan (Tancrede de), Sur l'oeuvre d'Alfred Mockel, _Vers et Prose_, April-June 1909.

Zweig (Stefan), emile Verhaeren, Mercure de France, 1910.

----emile Verhaeren, Insel-Verlag, Leipzig, 1910.

NOTES.

Page 3.--"Red Cheshire." The Dutch cheese so-called is "roux." Braun suggests that the adjective should be translated "red-haired."

Page 6.--"Those that we address with 'Sir.'" The cheese sold under the name of "Monsieur Fromage."

Page 13, _seq_.--Max Elskamp's poetry is considered somewhat obscure, and students may find the following equations of help: la Vierge = la femme pure; Jesus = l'enfance delicieuse; un dimanche solaire = une joie eclatante; un dimanche de coeur de bois = une joie egoste; un soldat = brutalite; un juif = un marchand; un oiseau = la vie sous la forme du verbe; une fleur = la vie sous la forme de la senteur.

Page 13.--"Of Evening." Sunday is life, the week-days are death; the poet is the Sunday, therefore, since the week is about to begin again, he _must_ die. The third stanza means that the Truelove will never again weep for the fair days of betrothal or marriage which the old family ring she wears remind her of.

Page 18.--"Full of cripples." By night, because then the regulations forbidding begging are more easily set at defiance.

Page 19, line 6.--An allusion to the painting by Seghers, which represents the Virgin Mary with lilies, dahlias, and even snowdrops.

Page 23.--"Here the azure cherubs blow." An allusion to the painting by Fouquet in the Museum at Antwerp.

Page 47.--In Huysmans' novel, _a Rebours_, liqueurs are compared with musical instruments: curacao corresponds to the clarinet; k.u.mmel to the nasal oboe; kirsch to the fierce blast of a trumpet, etc.

Page 100.--Song vii. "Et c'est l'esclavage, n'est-ce pas? auquel s'astreint tout etre qui se devoue." Beaunier.

Page 107.--"The running water" is the image of the human soul, constantly changing, "en devenir dans le devenir." And yet there is in it a continued, though mobile unity, a permanent _rhythm_. It objectifies itself in s.p.a.ce, but only exists in time, and Mockel sees its vital sign in those _aspirations_ which guide it towards itself, which bear it on to its fate. The unity of the mobile river, whose waves to-morrow will no longer be those they are to-day, is the continuous current that bears it, as though it aspired to the infinity of oceans.

Page 110.--The Goblet is woman, who, whether she inspires genius or sells her body, exists, for us, less by herself than by us; she is what we make her, like this goblet whose colours vary according to what one pours into it.

Page 111.--The Chandelier symbolizes the permanent drama enacted by Art, placed as it is between the frivolous world,--which tramples the rose of love under foot,--an the immortal splendour of Nature, which makes it feel its own feebleness.

Page 113.--The Angel is the legend of genius.

Page 116.--The Man with the lyre is the poet, who is less and less understood as he strikes the graver chords of his lyre.

Page 122.--The Eternal Bride is the Aspiration towards which we strive.

strive.