Young poets, packed houses

Dutch poetry from the eighties to the present

By Tatjana Daan

They were on either side of forty, the poets who passed for the ‘young guard’ of Dutch poetry in the mid-eighties. Huub Beurskens, Willem Jan Otten, Robert Anker, Anneke Brassinga, Stefan Hertmans, Luuk Gruwez, Charles Ducal. For many years they had been regarded as the newest generation of gifted poets. But in the late nineties things began to change, and today’s ‘young poets’ are no longer in their forties, but in their twenties and thirties. In another development, the mid-nineties saw a revival of interest in poetry performances in Holland and Flanders. Poems were no longer read in seclusion, which had previously been seen as the only way to enjoy poetry.

While this rejuvenation did not lead to a significant increase in the print run of poetry anthologies, it did result in larger audiences for poetry readings on stage and via the media, both old and new. With the arrival of these young poets and the many new podiums open to them, the public began to revise their image of poets as elderly, sedate and inward-looking. Today poetry is no longer seen as deadly dull or obscure and inaccessible, but rather as an open, lively, and dynamic art form, in which both older and younger poets are given their due.

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