Wall Poems ( nl, Muurgedichten, alternatively ''Gedichten op muren'' or ''Dicht op de Muur'') is a project in which more than 110

poem Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...

s in many different languages were painted on the exterior walls of buildings in the city of

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wi ...

, The

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

History and description

The Wall Poems project was partly funded by the private Tegen-Beeld foundation of Ben Walenkamp and Jan Willem Bruins, the project's two artists, with additional funding from several corporations and the city of Leiden. It began in 1992 with a poem in

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

Marina Tsvetaeva Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva (russian: Марина Ивановна Цветаева, p=mɐˈrʲinə ɪˈvanəvnə tsvʲɪˈtaɪvə; 31 August 1941) was a Russian poet. Her work is considered among some of the greatest in twentieth century Russia ...

and (temporarily) finished in 2005 with the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

poem ''De Profundis'' by

Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936), known as Federico García Lorca ( ), was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblemat ...

.. Other poets included in the set include

E. E. Cummings Edward Estlin Cummings, who was also known as E. E. Cummings, e. e. cummings and e e cummings (October 14, 1894 - September 3, 1962), was an American poet, painter, essayist, author and playwright. He wrote approximately 2,900 poems, two autobi ...

, Langston Hughes, Jan Hanlo, Du Fu,

Louis Oliver Louis Oliver, III (born March 9, 1966) is an American former college and professional football player who was a safety in the National Football League (NFL) for eight seasons during the 1980s and 1990s. Oliver played college football for the ...

, Pablo Neruda, Rainer Maria Rilke,

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

, and

W. B. Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

,. as well as local writers

Piet Paaltjens François Haverschmidt. François Haverschmidt, also written as HaverSchmidt (14 February 1835 in Leeuwarden – 19 January 1894 in Schiedam), was a Dutch minister and writer, who wrote prose under his own name but remains best known for the poe ...

and J. C. Bloem. One of the more obscure poems in the collection is written in the

Buginese language Buginese or Bugis (Buginese: ) is a language spoken by about five million people mainly in the southern part of Sulawesi, Indonesia. History The word Buginese derives from the word '' Bugis'' in Malay. In Buginese, it is called while the B ...

on a canal wall near the

Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies The Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies ( nl, Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, lit = Royal Institute for the Linguistics, Geography and Ethnology, abbreviated: KITLV) at Leiden was founded i ...

; it and many of the other poems are accompanied by plaques with translations into Dutch and English..

Guides

A guide available on the web describes a walking tour for visitors to Leiden that takes in 25 of the 101 poems. The first 43 poems have been collected in a book by Marleen van der Weij, ''Dicht op de muur: gedichten in Leiden'', and the rest are described in a second volume, published in 2005.

Gallery

File:WilliamShakespeareSonnetXXXLeidenWallPoem.jpg,

File:EecummingsLeidenWallPoem.jpg, E.E. Cummings File:Du Fu - Kexi.jpg, Du Fu File:NiikuniSeiichiShuKawaLeidenWallPoem.jpg,

Seiichi Niikuni was a Japanese poet and painting, painter. He was one of the foremost pioneers of the international avant-garde concrete poetry movement, creating works of calligraphic, visual and aural poetry. He is recognized as one of the most important poet ...

File:Treno in corsa wall poem, Pelikaanstraat, Leiden, Netherlands - 20100630.jpg, Cesare Simonetti File:MarinaTsvetajevaLeidenWallPoem.jpg,

File:WotkoceOkisceMaskokeOkisceLeidenWallPoem.jpg,

File:FedericoGarciaLorcaDeProfundisLeidenWallPoem.jpg,

File:Osip Mandelstam - Leningrad - Haagweg 29, Leiden.JPG,

Osip Mandelstam Osip Emilyevich Mandelstam ( rus, Осип Эмильевич Мандельштам, p=ˈosʲɪp ɨˈmʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ mənʲdʲɪlʲˈʂtam; – 27 December 1938) was a Russian and Soviet poet. He was one of the foremost members of the A ...

File:Cees van Hoore , Avond op het land, Kiekendiefhorst 1, Leiden.jpg, Cees van Hoore File:Filippo Tommaso Marinetti - Zang tumb tumb - Hoge Rijndijk 8, Leiden.JPG,

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti (; 22 December 1876 – 2 December 1944) was an Italian poet, editor, art theorist, and founder of the Futurist movement. He was associated with the utopian and Symbolist artistic and literary community Abbaye d ...

File:Muurgedicht Jabra Ibrahim Jabra,-Als een poolwinter...,Berlagestraat 13a,Leiden.jpg,

Jabra Ibrahim Jabra Jabra Ibrahim Jabra (28 August 1919 – 12 December 1994) ( ar, جبرا ابراهيم جبرا) was a Iraqi- Palestinian author, artist and intellectual born in Adana in French-occupied Cilicia to a Syriac Orthodox Christian family. His fam ...

File:Nils Ferlin Leiden.JPG,

Nils Ferlin Nils Ferlin (11 December 1898 - 21 October 1961) was a Swedish poet and lyricist.''A History of Swedish Literature'' by Ingemar Algulin, (Stockholm: Swedish Institute, 1989) pp. 247-248. Biography Nils Ferlin was born in Karlstad, Värmland, w ...

File:Matsuo Basho - Een woedende zee - Rapenburg 75, Leiden.JPG, Bashō File:Serat Kalatidha-Leiden01.jpg,

Ranggawarsita Raden Ngabehi Ranggawarsita (14 March 1802 – 24 December 1873, jv, ꦫꦢꦺꦤ꧀ꦔꦧꦺꦲꦶꦫꦺꦴꦁꦒꦮꦂꦰꦶꦠ, Raden Ngabehi Ronggawarsita, ) was a Javanese philosopher and poet. He was born into the famous literary Yasadipur ...

File:Webcam Quarantaine.jpg, Joost van Gijzen File:RobertFrostLeiden2017.jpg, Robert Frost

Influence

P1110482 Paris VI rue Ferou le bateau ivre rwk

Based on the success of the Leiden poetry project, wall poems have also been painted in several other Dutch cities. In 2004 the Dutch embassy to

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

launched a similar project in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...

, and in 2012 the Tegen-Beeld foundation collaborated with the International Society of Friends of Rimbaud to paint a poem by

Arthur Rimbaud Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (, ; 20 October 1854 – 10 November 1891) was a French poet known for his transgressive and surreal themes and for his influence on modern literature and arts, prefiguring surrealism. Born in Charleville, he start ...

, "

Le Bateau ivre "Le Bateau ivre" ("The Drunken Boat") is a 100-line verse-poem written in 1871 by Arthur Rimbaud. The poem describes the drifting and sinking of a boat lost at sea in a fragmented first-person narrative saturated with vivid imagery and symbolism. ...

", on a government building in the

6th arrondissement of Paris The 6th arrondissement of Paris (''VIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, it is referred to as ''le sixième''. The arrondissement, called Luxembourg in a reference to the seat o ...

.. In 2012 a poem by Marsman was painted on a wall in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

Publications

* Marleen van der Weij: ''Dicht op de muur. Gedichten in Leiden''. Gemeente Leiden, Dienst Bouwen en Wonen, 1996. (2nd ed.: 1996, 3rd ed.: 1997). 6th, rev. ed.: Burgersdijk & Niermans, Leiden, 2000. escription of the first 43 poems * Marleen van der Weij: ''Dicht op de muur 2. Gedichten in Leiden''. Burgersdijk & Niermans, Leiden, 2005. escription of the poems 44-101

References

External links

{{commons category
Complete list of all poems, with some background information on the project and the poems
Buildings and structures in Leiden Murals Dutch poetry collections 1992 introductions