Poet Emil Verharn: biography and creativity

Symbolism is a major direction in literature, the basic principles of which are the use of an element of understatement, mystery, mystery. Authors working in this direction conveyed the meaning of their works using signs and symbols (hence the name - symbolism).

This trend arose at the end of the 19th century in France. The term itself was first used by the poet Jean Moreas in the title of his manifesto. At the beginning of the next century, symbolism became widespread in other countries, including Russia.

The great literary figures, adherents of this direction, are Alexander Blok (Russia), Henri de Rainier (France), Henrik Ibsen (Norway), Edgar Allan Poe (USA) and others. Among them is Emil Verharn. This Belgian poet can be considered one of the founders of symbolism.

Biography of Emil Verharn

The future writer was born May 21, 1855 in Belgium, in the city of Sint-Amands, which is located in the province of Antwerp.

At age 11, Verharn entered a Jesuit boarding school in Ghent. After graduating, he entered the Catholic University of Leuven at the Faculty of Law. During training, Emil Verharn met with young writers who founded the literary magazine Young Belgium. Inspired by this, he began to write: the first articles of Verkharn were published in student magazines.

After graduating from the university for some time, he tried to work as a lawyer, but Verharn’s professional practice was limited to two parsed cases. He decided to devote himself completely to creativity.

In 1883, the first collection of poems by Emil Verharn “Flemings” was published. The inspiration was the work of painters David Teniers Sr. and Jan Steen.

The next collection - “Monks” (1886) was unsuccessful. Together with health problems, this caused Emil Verkharn’s internal crisis: the poet was gloomy and completely lost consciousness. It was then that the poet turned to the ideas of symbolism and created the cycles “Evenings”, “Crash” and “Black Torches”.

In August 1891, the wedding of Verharn and artist Martha Massen took place. The poet dedicated several lyric collections to his wife.

At the beginning of the XX century, the work of Emil Verharn gained fame - his poems were translated into several dozen languages. When the First World War began, the poet moved to England, where he created the collection “The Scarlet Wings of War”.

Verharn died on November 27, 1916, falling under the wheels of a train.

Creation. Collection "Flemings"

This collection is an early stage in the work of Emil Verharn. In his poems, the poet draws pictures of his usual reality and native life. Like many Belgian writers of the time, Verharn depicts his homeland and people: farms scattered on the plains, villages, churches, monasteries.

The Flemish collection in detail demonstrates to the reader the usual peasant life and scenes of rural life, singing the beauty of nature and local women.

The cycle made a good impression on the avant-garde artists, but was not adopted in the native poet Sint-Amands. It got to the point that Verkharn’s parents tried to redeem all published copies of the book and destroy them.

Evenings, Crash, and Black Torches

After poor reviews about the second collection in the poet's life, the period was not the best. Virtually nothing remained of his romanticism, which characterized the early work of Verkharn.

Released at this time, collections will later be called the "tragic trilogy." They also mention the nature of Flanders, but in a completely different way. If in the first collection the poet acted as a detached contemplator of local landscapes, then at this stage of his work he seemed to be immersed in them, experiencing all their troubles and tragedies.

The “tragic trilogy” has a social meaning. Verharn depicts not only abstract pictures of nature, but also a very specific phenomenon - poverty.

"Violent forces"

Another collection, which can be attributed to the later work of the poet - "Violent forces", published in 1902. In it, Verharn raises the themes of social heroism, the fate of mankind and its difficult struggle with nature.

In the poems included in this collection, the poet created images that embody certain historical stages. For example, in the poem by Emil Verharn “Banker”, the protagonist appears as a new master of this world, who “subjugates rock with his will” and “decides the fate of kingdoms and the fate of kings.”

You can also notice other images - historical and mythical. They personify progress, heroism, struggle and creative accomplishments.