Name Hans Lodeizen | Role Poet | |
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Died 1950, Lausanne, Switzerland | ||
Peter klencke sings hans lodeizen
Hans Lodeizen (Naarden, July 20, 1924 - Lausanne, 26 July 1950), born Johannes August Frederik Lodeizen, was a Dutch poet. He was the author of one book of poems (The Wallpaper Within, 1949) and a quantity of miscellaneous work. Despite his short life and modest output, his minimalist lyrics, which are generally constituted of short, unrhymed lines without capitals or punctuation, strongly influenced a post-war generation of Dutch poets, including Gerard Reve (who enjoyed a private correspondence with Lodeizen's father, revealed in 2002 by Lodeizen's Dutch biographer).
Contents
- Peter klencke sings hans lodeizen
- Hans lodeizen zonder titel
- Early life and education
- Works
- Translation
- References
Hans lodeizen zonder titel
Early life and education
Born into an influential family, Lodeizen was raised in great privilege as the son of the director of Müller & Company, an international trading firm. He studied law briefly in Leiden, but took an interest in biology and pursued graduate study at Amherst College in the United States in 1947-1948. There he befriended the poet James Merrill who, after becoming "smitten" with Lodeizen, would describe him many years later as "clever, goodnatured, solitary, blond, / all to a disquieting degree." Lodeizen would lose interest in his graduate biology program and return to Europe to work (reluctantly) for his father's firm; after his diagnosis with leukemia, he spent his last months sustained by blood transfusions in a Swiss sanatorium. He was 26 when he died.
Lodeizen's poems have been translated into English by James Brockway and James Merrill, among others, and have appeared mainly in anthologies of Dutch poetry.
Works
Translation
