Jakobus Cornelis (Jacques) Bloem (10 May 1887,

Oudshoorn Oudshoorn is a former village in the Dutch province of South Holland. It was located on the Oude Rijn, opposite the village of Alphen, with which it merged to form the city of Alphen aan den Rijn Alphen aan den Rijn (; or "Alphen on the R ...

– 10 August 1966, Kalenberg) was a Dutch

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and

essay An essay ( ) is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a Letter (message), letter, a term paper, paper, an article (publishing), article, a pamphlet, and a s ...

ist. Between 1921 and 1958 he published fourteen volumes of poetry. In 1949 he won the

Constantijn Huygens Sir Constantijn Huygens, Lord of Zuilichem ( , , ; 4 September 159628 March 1687), was a Dutch Golden Age poet and composer. He was also secretary to two Princes of Orange: Frederick Henry and William II, and the father of the scientist C ...

prijs, one of the country's highest literary awards, and in 1952 the

P. C. Hooft Award The P.C. Hooft Award (in Dutch: P.C. Hooft-prijs), inaugurated in 1948, is a Dutch-language literary lifetime-achievement award named after 17th-century Dutch poet and playwright Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft. The award is made annually. Background ...

for his literary oeuvre. In 1965, in rapidly declining health, he was awarded the highest Dutch-language literary award, the

Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren The ''Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren'' ("Dutch Literature Prize") is awarded every three years to an author from the Netherlands, Belgium or, since 2005, Suriname writing in Dutch (language), Dutch. It is considered the most prestigious literary aw ...

. He was nominated for the

Nobel Prize in Literature The Nobel Prize in Literature, here meaning ''for'' Literature (), is a Swedish literature prize that is awarded annually, since 1901, to an author from any country who has, in the words of the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, "in ...

. Dubbed the poet of unfulfilled desire, he is hailed as one of the 100 greatest Netherlanders of the twentieth century. The Dutch poetry award

J.C. Bloem-poëzieprijs The J.C. Bloem-poëzieprijs (Dutch language, Dutch for J.C. Bloem Poetry Prize) is a biennial Dutch literary award. The award is named after Dutch poet and essayist J. C. Bloem and is awarded to a Netherlands, Dutch or Flanders, Flemisch poet's s ...

is named after him.

Life

In his early years, Bloem was a great admirer of the

symbolist Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: *Symbol, any object or sign that represents an idea Arts *Artistic symbol, an element of a literary, visual, or other work of art that represents an idea ** Color symbolism, the use of colors within various c ...

poetry of

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet, essayist, translator and art critic. His poems are described as exhibiting mastery of rhythm and rhyme, containing an exoticism inherited from the Romantics ...

; it is, however, for a relatively simple, almost naive poem that he is best remembered in the Netherlands, "Domweg Gelukkig in de Dapperstraat", "simply (or foolishly) happy in the Dapperstraat", a market street in East

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

. The poem also lent its title to a popular anthology of Dutch poetry. His legacy, beside his poetry, remains a bit controversial: he was suspected of

antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

and of sympathizing, at least initially, with the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

government, and in a recent biography the possibility of his having been

homosexual Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between people of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" exc ...

was proposed. Still, his importance to the country was reaffirmed at the fortieth anniversary of his death, a celebration of his life and work in Paasloo, where he and his wife Clara Eggink were buried.

Select bibliography

*''Het verlangen''. 1921. *''Media vita''. 1931. *''Nederlaag''. 1937. *''Sintels''. 1945. *''Quiet though sad: gedichten'' ’s-Gravenhage, A.A.M. Stols, 1946. *''Verzamelde gedichten''. ’s-Gravenhage, A. A. M. Stols, 1947. *''Verzamelde Beschouwingen''. ’s-Gravenhage, A.A.M. Stols, 1950. *''Afscheid''. ’s-Gravenhage: L. J. C. Boucher, 1957. *''Poëtica''. Amsterdam: Athenaeum/Polak & Van Gennep, 1969. *''Ongewild archief''. ’s-Gravenhage: BZZTôH, 1977. . *''Ganz einfach glücklich, in der Dapperstraat - Ausgewählte Gedichte'' aus dem Niederländischen übersetzt von Gerd Busse und Christian Golusda. Mauke Verlag, Jena, 2024. ISBN 978-3-948259-19-8

References

1887 births 1966 deaths 20th-century Dutch poets Dutch male poets Constantijn Huygens Prize winners P. C. Hooft Award winners Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren winners Officers of the Order of Orange-Nassau People from Alphen aan den Rijn 20th-century Dutch male writers {{Netherlands-writer-stub