The Sons of the Sun

For twenty years, Paul Claes has been writing poetry that is incomparable to any other within Dutch-language literature. Claes’ poems are multilingual and testify to an enormous erudition and intertextual ability. He attempts to integrate his lyricism into a literary tradition that he continuously transforms and extraordinarily makes his own, allowing him to reinvent it over and over. Claes’ verses are rooted in ancient mythology, within which he reflects on his inspiration and on what it means to be a poet.

 ‘The Sons of the Sun’ is an anthology of his seven published poetry collections, each of which has an internationally-inspired theme as its foundation. Paul Claes’ poems conjure up meaning using the alchemy of words, blend in Shakespearian sonnets, showcase rhyming sound poetry alongside pastiches, visual poetry and epigrams, and so on.

Paul Claes is not a stylish avant-garde poet, joker or anecdotist, but a modern sorcerer of words.