May

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 May (in Dutch: Mei), Gorter finally could proclaim “the thing is done.” May was published in the contemporary periodical The New Guide (De Nieuwe Gids). 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, the search for the divine, disillusion, transience, and melancholic reflection. Spontaneous and full of vibrant imagery, May quickly became a landmark of the 1880s literary movement in The Netherlands, the so-called ‘Eightiers’ (Tachtigers), which attempted to reclaim aesthetics for art. In 1890, the even more innovative Verses (Verzen) 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) and Lyrics (Liedjes, 1930). Gorter however never gave up his identity as a poet. Love remained a key theme in his work until his death.

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