The northern Netherlands, the Province of Groningen in particular, are known for their carved (predominantly rhymed) verses, stanzas, even complete poems, on the front or back of vertical headstones (stelae) mainly dating from the second half of the nineteenth century. This poetry sometimes testifies to the cause of death of ...
(Show more)The northern Netherlands, the Province of Groningen in particular, are known for their carved (predominantly rhymed) verses, stanzas, even complete poems, on the front or back of vertical headstones (stelae) mainly dating from the second half of the nineteenth century. This poetry sometimes testifies to the cause of death of the deceased, but in a majority of cases expresses the deceased’s and/or bereaved’s vision – that is, descriptions, characterizations, feelings, opinions – on life, the loss of life, and afterlife, both in general and in particular terms (the latter concerning the buried person). This paper will contextualize gravestone poetry in the following respects: 1) stylistically and aesthetically, by linking gravestone poems to contemporary currents of textual remembrance and mortuary literature (death poetry, death prayers, funeral orations, obituaries); 2) socially and religiously, by linking gravestone poems to the social, religious, and wider philosophical background and orientation of both the deceased and the bereaved; 3) monumentally, spatially, and functionally, by linking gravestone poems to the material, the design and the iconography of the stones in which they were carved, to the particular location of the graves and gravestones that carry poetry, and to the diverse encounters (conscious visits or occasional walks) and uses (reading, reciting, pondering, remembering) to which graveyards, stones and poems enticed those confronting or passing them
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