Herman Gorter (1864-1927)

Gorter was born in Wormerveer, a rural town in the north-western Netherlands. His father, a pastor, died when he was six years old. Gorter studied classical languages in Amsterdam and became a teacher at a high school.

In 1889, after three years of work on his epic poem Mei (May), Gorter finally could proclaim “the thing is done”. Mei was published in the contemporary periodical De Nieuwe Gids (The New Guide). It was a retrospect of Gorter’s youth, borrowing both form and theme from John Keats’ Endymion (1818), yet tracing its way through a wide range of impressions: of nature, music, love, search for the divine, disillusion, transience and melancholic reflection. Spontaneous and full of vibrant imagery, Mei quickly became a landmark of the 1880s literary movement in The Netherlands, the so-called Tachtigers or ‘Eightiers’, which attempted to reclaim aesthetics for art.

In 1890, the even more innovative Verzen (Verses) were published, in which Gorter digs further and tries to let his spiritual and sensual emotions express themselves. Always in search of the ultimate form of poetry, Gorter would gradually distance himself from the individualistic ‘Eightiers’ movement. He became increasingly politically engaged and turned to expressing his Marxist ideals through his work, for example in the epic poem Pan (1916).

Gorter however never gave up his identity as a poet. Love remained a key theme in his work until his death.