Old School Rotterdam Poets

Rotterdam has many very well known but also less known poets. Lots of them are really connected with their city and have written great poems about Rotterdam. They tend to write about well known places, often old neighborhoods where poverty was all around, and their childhood took place. Rotterdam always has been a working city, with its harbor and international industry. Lots of people used to work under bad conditions in the harbor and lived in small cheap build houses in various areas of Rotterdam.

Well known Poets from Rotterdam are:

-Hendrik Tollens

Hendrik Tollens is an old poet from the 18th century. He lived in Rotterdam and was a poet and a trader. He also was owner of a paint factory but always lived a modest life. In 1860 a statue of him was revealed in the park near the Euromast, also know as “het park”

More on Hendrik Tollens can be found in The Gemeente Archief on Tollens

-De stadsdichter van Rotterdam 2013-2014 Daniël Dee.

Every year Rotterdam chooses a “city poet”. This title is a big honor but also brings the responsibility to write some spot-on poets that year about different events in Rotterdam. It results in an amazing collection of poems about Rotterdam, written by Rotterdam Poets.