Herman Gorter: Love poetry

Herman Gorter (1864-1927) belonged to the group of writers who spoke in the 1880s and who are therefore called the 'Movement of the Eighties'. The poems he collected in the 1890 collection Verses are usually called 'sensitive verses'. We can regard this sensitivism as an intensified form of impressionism. Sensory impressions, together with the emotions they evoke, are expressed as directly as possible in language. This poetry illustrates the need of the Eighties to express 'the most individual expression of the most individual emotion'.

Gorter is considered the first poet in our literature who, against all literary traditions, said what he wanted to say, honestly and simply, without frills, in a pure language and a style that is sometimes reminiscent of children's language. The collection of Verses is rightly included in the literary canon, the collection of texts that are considered essential Dutch-language literature by the literary field in Flanders.