WOESTIJNE, KAREL VAN DE

born March 10, 1878, Ghent, Belg. died Aug. 23, 1929, Zwijnaarde Flemish poet whose body of work constitutes a symbolic autobiography. Van de Woestijne studied Germanic philology. He worked as a journalist and government official in Brussels (190720) and as a professor of literature at Ghent from 1920 until his death. His poetry stems from the neo-Romantic and Symbolist tradition, but his style evolved from sensualist and melancholic to more ascetic and contemplative. His early, subjective poetry includes Het vaderhuis (1903; The Father House), about his childhood; De boomgaard der vogelen en der vruchten (1905; The Orchard of Birds and Fruit), on his youth and courtship; and De gulden schaduw (1910; The Golden Shadow), on his marriage and fatherhood. The tormented awareness of the conflict between sense and spirit, inherent in all his works, reaches a bitter climax in De modderen man (1920; The Man of Mud) and still resonates in the more subdued Het berg-meer (1928; The Mountain Lake). His poetrypowerfully conveying the spirit's longing for liberation from the compulsive desires of the fleshranks among the finest achievements of European Symbolism.