"She Walks in Beauty"

In a stirring article, quite poetic in itself, on the sorrows of Leopold III, Michael Geelan, to describe Queen Astrid, cites the opening lines of Lord Byron's "She Walks in Beauty" (1814). Intrigued, I looked up the quote and decided the whole poem suited Astrid perfectly:

She walks in beauty, like the night

Of cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that's best of dark and bright

Meet in her aspect and her eyes :

Thus mellow'd to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less,

Had half impaired the nameless grace

Which waves in every raven tress,

Or softly lightens o'er her face;

Where thoughts serenely sweet express

How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

The smiles that win, the tints that glow,

But tell of days in goodness spent,

A mind at peace with all below,

A heart whose love is innocent!

~The Complete Works of Lord Byron, 1841, p. 254

Leopold III and Jacques Brel

As described by Michel Verwilghen in Le Mythe d'Argenteuil, the beloved Belgian poet and singer Jacques Brel was among King Leopold's sympathizers. He visited the fallen monarch at the country estate of Argenteuil and dedicated these interesting and touching verses to him:

Je vous souhaite des rêves à n'en plus finir
  et l'envie furieuse d'en réaliser quelques-uns.
Je vous souhaite d'aimer ce qu'il faut aimer
  et d'oublier ce qu'il faut oublier.
Je vous souhaite des passions,
  je vous souhaites des silences.
Je vous souhaite des chants d'oiseau au réveil
  et des rêves d'enfants.
Je vous souhaite de résister à l'enlisement, à l'indifférence,
 aux vertus négatives de notre époque.
Je vous souhaite surtout d'être vous... 

After Leopold's death, the poem (today very well known) was found among his papers. The King's wife, Princess Lilian, long kept it safe in her purse, among her most precious documents.

On a related note, Leopold's daughter, Marie-Esmeralda, mentions in her memoirs that the King, for his part, also enjoyed translating and composing poetry. Unfortunately, though, I have never come across any of his work.

The Poetry of Emile Verhaeren

Above, we see a painting, by Theo van Rysselberghe, of Emile Verhaeren reciting his poetry. Born in 1855 into a Flemish, but French-speaking family, in Sint Amands, Belgium, Verhaeren trained as a lawyer at the University of Louvain but, after a short period in legal practice, decided to devote his life to literature. One of the founders of Symbolism, Verhaeren became one of the most prominent figures in Belgian literature. Always radical and flamboyant, he was a revolutionary firebrand in his youth, but, nonetheless, developed a close friendship with King Albert I and Queen Elisabeth of Belgium. World War I profoundly shocked Verhaeren's pacifist sensibilities, but his country's brave resistance to German invasion inspired a series of magnificent war poems. Verhaeren had a deep admiration and regard for the Belgian royal couple. When the King and Queen were holding out at La Panne, near the North Sea, in the last strip of Belgian territory free of German occupation, the poet wrote: 

 

Ce n'est qu'un bout de sol étroit

Mais qui renferme et sa Reine et son Roi

Et l'amour condensé d'un peuple qui les aime

Le nord a beau y déchainer le froid qui gerce et qui mord

Il est brûlant ce sol suprême

Sadly, Verhaeren did not live to see the return of peace and his country's liberation. He died tragically, by falling under a train, in 1916. 

A collection of poems by Emile Verhaeren may be found here.