Soleares (poems)

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Soleares
Slauerhoff soleares.gif
Author J. Slauerhoff
Country Netherlands
Language Dutch
Genre Poetry
Publisher A. A. M. Stols
Publication date
1933
Preceded by Serenade (1930)
Followed by Een eerlijk zeemansgraf (1936)

Soleares is a volume of poetry by Dutch poet J. Slauerhoff. First published in 1933, and Slauerhoff's next-to-last volume, the poems in this collection center on Latin America and Portugal, and show a resignation or acquiescence not before seen in his poetry.

J. Slauerhoff Dutch poet, writer and doctor

Jan Jacob Slauerhoff, who published as J. Slauerhoff, was a Dutch poet and novelist. He is considered one of the most important Dutch language writers.

Contents

Content

The volume contains lyric poems, varying in length between 10 and 54 end-rhymed lines. Stanzas are between 2 and 6 lines long. The two-line stanzas are rhyming couplets; four-line stanzas frequently rhyme a b a b. The poems are organized in seven sections:

Lyric poetry literary genre

Lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person. The term derives from a form of Ancient Greek literature, the lyric, which was defined by its musical accompaniment, usually on a stringed instrument known as a lyre. The term owes its importance in literary theory to the division developed by Aristotle between three broad categories of poetry: lyrical, dramatic, and epic.

  1. Tristas (three poems, one of which a translation of Rubén Darío's "El cantor va por todo el mundo" from his El canto errante, and another a poem on the Gran Chaco)
  2. Islas (four poems on islands: Fogo, Cape Verde, Fernando de Noronha, Fernando Po, and Isla Salas y Gómez)
  3. Saudades (six poems, including fados and a long poem on Macao) [1]
  4. Zambas (two poems set in colonies in or near the Andes with an anti-colonial and anti-Christian tone)
  5. Sonetas (three Italian sonnets, the first a translation of Ruben Dario's "Earthquake" from his "Nicaraguan Triptych")
  6. Coplas (four four-line stanzas of trimeter, rhyming a b a b)
  7. Desenganas (two short poems about sex, guilt, and desire)

Publishing history

The collection was to be called Saudades . [2] First published in 1933 by A. A. M. Stols in Nijmegen in 15 hand-signed copies (according to Slauerhoff, 14 more than necessary [3] ). The second was the first trade edition, a revised edition with a number of poems excised, published in 1934. Following editions 1935, 1939, and 1940) were edited by Kees Lekkerkerker (and all published by Stols. [2]

<i>Saudade</i> a special feeling of light sadness, which Portuguese-speaking people attribute to themselves

Saudade is a deep emotional state of nostalgic or profound melancholic longing for an absent something or someone that one loves. Moreover, it often carries a repressed knowledge that the object of longing might never return. One English translation of the word is missingness, although it might not convey the feeling of deep emotion attached to the word "saudade". Stronger forms of saudade might be felt towards people and things whose whereabouts are unknown, such as a lost lover, or a family member who has gone missing, moved away, separated, or died.

A. A. M. Stols was a Dutch printer and publisher, known best for his limited bibliophile editions of Dutch poetry.

Nijmegen City and municipality in Gelderland, Netherlands

Nijmegen is a city in the Dutch province of Gelderland, on the Waal river close to the German border.

Critical responses

Menno ter Braak praised Soleares highly in a review later collected in his In gesprek met de onzen (1946). He identifies Slauerhoff's poetry's main theme as "the desperado, the person who feels like an outcast in a world he regards with a mixture of revulsion, desperate affection, and sarcasm" and remarks that with Slauerhoff this isn't a pose but an innate quality of the man. Compared to his earlier collections the quality of the poetry has increased, but not at the expense of personality. Ter Braak cites "Vida triste", in which the speaker reflects on a love affair and begs for a way to kill his hellish passion, and finds in it Slauerhoff's continuing displeasure with existence and his fatal exile. [4]

Menno ter Braak Dutch writer

Menno ter Braak was a Dutch modernist author.

The volume was awarded the 1934 C.W. van der Hoogtprijs. Though Slauerhoff had been critical of the Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde, which awarded the prize, he did accept it, as a thank-you note written in Tangier on 2 July 1934. [5]

Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde

The Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde is a prestigious and exclusive literary society. The MNL was established in Leiden in 1766 and is still located there. At the moment, the society has approximately 1,600 members, mainly Dutch scholars. New members can only be elected after they are introduced by existing members. The MNL has two regional branches, for the Northern and the Southern part of the Netherlands, and also a representative in South Africa. King Willem-Alexander is the patron of the MNL.

Tangier City in Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima, Morocco

Tangier is a major city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Maghreb coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the capital of the Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region, as well as the Tangier-Assilah prefecture of Morocco.

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<i>Eldorado</i> (poems)

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<i>Serenade</i> (poems)

Serenade is a volume of poetry by Dutch poet J. Slauerhoff. First published in 1930, the poems in the collection are mostly personal and lyric poems. Critics have noted that some of the poems are inspired by 19th-century French poetry and are sexual in nature, and they have responded in various ways, with assessments ranging from "childish" to "pure lyric". The themes of desperation and the desire to escape bourgeois life, common in Slauerhoff's other poetry, are found in Serenade as well, and two of the poems were used in an obituary for the poet, who died eight years after the publication of this volume.

<i>Oost-Azië</i>

Oost-Azië is a volume of poetry by Dutch poet J. Slauerhoff. First published in 1928 under the pseudonym John Ravenswood, the collection contains poems whose theme is the Far East, a part of the globe Slauerhoff knew from his career as a sailor.

<i>Fleurs de Marécage</i>

Fleurs de Marécage is a collection of French poems by Dutch poet J. Slauerhoff, first published in 1929. Some are poems originally written in French, others are French translations by the poet of his originally Dutch poems.

<i>Saturnus</i> (poems)

Saturnus is a volume of poetry by Dutch poet J. Slauerhoff. First published in 1930, the collection gathers the poems earlier published in Clair-Obscur, published by Slauerhoff in 1927 without his editorial oversight, with some additional poems.

<i>Een eerlijk zeemansgraf</i>

Een eerlijk zeemansgraf is the last volume of poetry published by Dutch poet J. Slauerhoff before his death.

References

  1. van Hage, Kees (2010). "Saudade bij Slauerhoff, Branco en Laverman" (in Dutch). Retrieved 6 May 2018.
  2. 1 2 "Slauerhoff: Soleares" (in Dutch). Nederlandse Poëzie Encyclopedie. Retrieved 6 May 2018.
  3. Povée, Henk (1978). Jan Jacob Slauerhoff. Orion. ISBN   9789026433238.
  4. ter Braak, Menno (1946). "Het lezen van poezie: Naar aanleiding van J. Slauerhoff, Soleares". In gesprek met de onzen (in Dutch). pp. 48–53. de 'desperado', de mensch die zich outcast voelt in een wereld, die hij met een gemengd gevoel van afkeer, wanhopige genegenheid en sarcasme beschouwt
  5. Maas, Nop (1990). "De Maatschappij en H. Marsman". Nieuw Letterkundig Magazijn (in Dutch). 8: 8–16. Retrieved 6 May 2018.