Willem de Mérode

Willem de Mérode (1922)

Willem de Mérode (born September 2, 1887 in Spijk near Delfzijl in the Netherlands ; † May 22, 1939 , real name: Willem Eduard Keuning ) was a Dutch poet.

Willem de Mérode was born in 1887 in a village near Delfzijl ( Groningen province ) and grew up in the strict Calvinist tradition, which rejected the joy of life as a sin. In 1906 he became a village school teacher and began to occupy himself with literature , in particular with an aesthetic, individualistic literature of " l'art pour l'art ". He was a prolific poet and published 27 collections of poetry in his rather short life, the first in 1916.

Although he has never openly admitted his homosexuality , it can be clearly felt in his poetry. The village school teacher Keuning was no stranger to a certain naivety. In 1924 he was sentenced to a year in prison for seducing a minor , after which he finally broke with the Church.

He settled on a farm near Arnhem and lived there until his death. His poems reflect the confrontation with the church and the conflict between soul and body . De Merode advocates in his verses a departure from religious, Calvinist-moral dogmatism . As a poet of “ inwardness ” he has been rediscovered in recent years.

Hans Werkman published two books about his life: De wereld van Willem de Mérode (1993) and Willem de Mérode en zijn jongens (1991). A collection of the poems by Willem de Merode appeared in 1987, Willem de Mérode, Verzamelde Gedichten , edited by Hans Werkman.

De Mérode's other pseudonyms were: Joost van Keppel , Henri Hoogland and Jan Bos .

literature

• Hans Werkman: De wereld van Willem de Mérode , De Arbeiderspers, Amsterdam 1983, ISBN 90-295-5714-1
• Hans Werkman: De Mérode en de jongens , De Prom, Baarn 1991, ISBN 90-6801-287-8

Web links

• www.willemdemerode.nl