Jan Hendrik Leopold:
(‘s-Hertogenbosch, 11 May 1865 – Rotterdam, 21 June 1925).
Dutch poet and classicist who is counted as belonging to Symbolism. He is considered by some to be the most important Dutch poet since Vondel.
After his debut with poems influenced by Gorter and Mallarmé, from 1900 his poetry shows philosophical deepening especially of the Stoa, after 1915 mixed with Eastern religious elements. Leopold’s best-known works are poems that can often be found in anthologies. His poem ‘O nachten van gedragene ecase’ is generally considered one of the most beautiful love poems in Dutch literature.[
Also much admired are the epic poem Cheops from 1915 and the quatrains modelled on Arab and Persian poets in Oostersch from 1922.
The only undoubted thing, feeling one’s own self.
