Jan Jakob Lodewijk ten Kate (December 23, 1819December 24, 1889) was a Dutch

divine Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from a deity.divine< ...

, prose writer and

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 ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

Life

He was born at

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital o ...

. He started in life as a lawyer's clerk. It was his friend, Dr Heldring, pastor at Hemmen, in

Gelderland Gelderland (), also known as Guelders () in English, is a province of the Netherlands, occupying the centre-east of the country. With a total area of of which is water, it is the largest province of the Netherlands by land area, and second by ...

, who, discovering in Ten Kate the germs of poetical genius, enabled him to study

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

at the

University of Utrecht Utrecht University (UU; nl, Universiteit Utrecht, formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2018, it had an enrollme ...

(1838–43). Having completed his studies, Ten Kate became pastor at Middelburg, Amsterdam, and other places, meanwhile developing well-nigh ceaseless activity, both in prose and lyric poetry. Among his prose works may be mentioned the travel papers (Rhine, 1861; Italy, 1857–62), ''Christelijke Overdenkingen'' ("Thoughts of a Christian," 1840-52), and other religious studies. His early poetry was in the main original. The best known of his poems were: *''Ahasverus op de Grimsel'' ("Ahasuerus on the Grimsel," 1840) *''Zangen des Tijds'' ("Songs of the Times," 1841) *''Legenden en Mengelpoëzie'' ("Legends and Miscellaneous Poetry," 1846) *''In den Bloemkof'' ("In the Flower Garden," 1851) *''De Schepping'' ("The Creation," 1866) *''De Planeten'' ("The Planets," 1869) *''De Jaargetijden'' ("The Seasons," 1871) *''De Psalmen'' ("The Psalms," 1874) *''De Vrouw in het Nederlandsch Lied'' ("Woman in Dutch Song," 1882) *''Palm-takken en Dichtbloemen'' ("Palm Branches and Poetical Flowers," 1884) Ten Kate reached the pinnacle of his poetic fame in ''The Creation'', ''The Planets'', and ''The Seasons''. These poems certainly show a masterly grasp of his mother tongue and a wonderful facility of expression, coupled with graceful vigour and fertile fancy. These qualities he also plentifully displayed in the innumerable translations he made of many of the masterpieces of foreign poetry in nearly every European language. He had not only an extraordinary aptitude for learning alien idioms, but also the gift of translating foreign lyrics into clear, fluent and beautiful Dutch verse. Ten Kate's versatility in this respect has never been equalled; it extended from

Tasso TASSO (Two Arm Spectrometer SOlenoid) was a particle detector at the PETRA particle accelerator at the German national laboratory DESY. The TASSO collaboration is best known for having discovered the gluon, the mediator of the strong interaction an ...

and

Andersen Andersen () is a Danish-Norwegian patronymic surname meaning "son of Anders" (itself derived from the Greek name " Ανδρέας/Andreas", cf. English Andrew). It is the fifth most common surname in Denmark, shared by about 3.2% of the population. ...

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian people, Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', origin ...

, Schiller,

Victor Hugo Victor-Marie Hugo (; 26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French Romantic writer and politician. During a literary career that spanned more than sixty years, he wrote in a variety of genres and forms. He is considered to be one of the great ...

, Milton,

Tennyson Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...

and

Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include "Paul Revere's Ride", ''The Song of Hiawatha'', and ''Evangeline''. He was the first American to completely transl ...

. Ten Kate died in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

in 1889. His complete ''Poetic Works'' were published after his death in 12 volumes (Leiden, 1891).

Family

He was the uncle of the anthropologist, Herman Frederik Carel ten Kate.

References

Attribution: *

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Katen, Jan Jakob Lodewijk ten Dutch male poets Utrecht University alumni 1819 births 1889 deaths Clergy from The Hague 19th-century Dutch poets 19th-century male writers Writers from The Hague