Background
Jan Hendrik Leopold was born on March 11, 1865, in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.
Leiden University, Leiden, Netherlands
Jan Hendrik Leopold studied classical literature at Leiden University, where he received his doctorate in 1891.
Jan Hendrik Leopold was born on March 11, 1865, in 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.
Jan Hendrik Leopold studied classical literature at Leiden University, where he received his doctorate in 1891.
Jan Hendrik Leopold taught classical languages at a secondary school in Rotterdam. He first published his poetry in De Nieuwe Gids (The New Guide) in 1893 and continued to publish in this journal throughout his life.
Critics distinguish three periods in the life of Leopold. The first, lasting from 1893 to about 1900, was the most creative. It revealed self-containment, a drive to surrender and inability to do so, and introversion. Leopold wrote series or cycles of poetry during this time, and with the exception of the very first cycle with a religious theme, they were cycles of love poems. It is as if the struggle between self and the non-self were described as a love affair but always involved doomed love so that the reader would discover that the end of the cycle fit into and was in fact continued in its own beginning. The second period lasted from 1900 to 1915 and was marked by the author’s interest in philosophy as part of his quest to approach his issues of solitude and unity with the world.
The final period, beginning at 1915 and ending at his death in 1925, was characterized by diversity, with elements of Antiquity connected with Eastern religion, and a shift from the rational to the mystical. Leopold had read Persian and Arabic poetry, the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, for example, in French and English translations. He then created his own translations, adaptations, and original poems in that same style.
(Dutch Edition)
1902Jan Hendrik Leopold was first influenced by Pieter Cornelis Boutens and Herman Gorter but soon developed along his own lines.