POETICA DICTIS: 2026

Thursday, July 16, 2026

'Dichter', the German word for poet, is often an honorific title. It can be given to a writer who has written nothing but prose and no verse at all.

James Reidel

Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

Dutch poetry in Indonesian language, translated by Siti Wahyuningsih and Albert Hagenaars

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry

www.alberthagenaars.nl

Musset is more a poet than an artist, and right now more a human than a poet – and a miserable human at that. Musset never separated art from the sensations of which it is the complement. In his view, music was made for serenades, painting for portraits, and poetry to comfort hearts. When you try to stuff the sun in your pants like that, you burn your pants and pee on the sun. And that's what happened to him.

Gustave Flaubert

Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

Dutch poetry in Indonesian language, translated by Siti Wahyuningsih and Albert Hagenaars

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry

www.alberthagenaars.nl

Being a poet for Maurice Gilliams means carrying a fate and passing it on. Because the poet is, for now, defeated, but keeps going on because he hears ‘the voice,' which guarantees him that he will win.

Paul De Vree

Also see:

Frozen poets - Sculptures, graves and other traces of poets

Dutch poetry in Indonesian language, translated by Siti Wahyuningsih and Albert Hagenaars

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry

www.alberthagenaars.nl

Writing a poem is like putting together a Rubrick's cube. You have all the colors —words and images— but you have to get them in the right place. And there is only one possibility. After a long time of tinkering, you find the solution, you have the aha-moment. That's it. But with a poem, it sometimes takes months before you find that small word that suddenly makes the poem harmonious. Finished. Not in the sense of a perfect poem, but of a successful attempt. Each poem is an attempt to express something accurately.

Lut De Block

www.alberthagenaars.nl

Also see:
Frozen poets - Statues, tombs and other traces of hundreds of poets

Dutch poetry in Indonesian language, translated by Siti Wahyuningsih and Albert Hagenaars

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry

Flemish is much richer than the standard language. It is also the task of the poet to create neologisms, to be creative with language, to color the language, for example by tearing words from their context, deforming fixed expressions for their own use. A poet must be a bit of an alchemist.

Patrick Cornillie

www.alberthagenaars.nl

Also see:
Frozen poets - Statues, tombs and other traces of hundreds of poets

Dutch poetry in Indonesian language, translated by Siti Wahyuningsih and Albert Hagenaars

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry

A poem might be called a pseudo-person. Like a person, it’s unique and addresses the reader personally.

W.H. Auden

The poet is a world, contracted in one person.

Victor Hugo

www.alberthagenaars.nl

Also see:
Frozen poets - Statues, tombs and other traces of hundreds of poets

Dutch poetry in Indonesian language, translated by Siti Wahyuningsih and Albert Hagenaars

Critical reviews on modern Dutch poetry