Ouwens' ruimte. De functie van het versregelwit van Arcadia tot Mythologie.

Abstract

The eight volumes of poetry that Kees Ouwens published since 1976, display a remarkable and varied development in the use of free verse. In his first volume, Arcadia, Ouwens shows his adherence to a tradition in which a poetic line basically reflects a pattern of sound. In his next volume, Intieme handelingen (= Intimate Actions), any relation between the poetic line and an acoustic pattern seems to be gone; by his lineation and his use of punctuation, however, Ouwens is able to manipulate the prosody of the verse in a subtle way. The volume Als een beek (= Like a Brook) shows a large degree of semantic complexity; the poetic line now reflects units of signification. In Klem (= Trap) and Droom (= Dream) the confession seems to be the model of communication; the poetic line has regained its original function, but the poetic entity of the strophe has become much more important for the reading process. From Afdankingen (= Dismissals) until his last volume, Ouwens is presenting his poetry in cycles in which visual patterning seems to be functioning independently from acoustic patterning. This last volume, after Van de verliezer & de lichtbron (= On the Loser & the Source of Light), is Mythologieën (=Mythologies). There, by using the computer Ouwens has succeeded in suggesting breaks and other rhythmic structures with great precision. As a result, within the poetic line white space can be found on many places.

The many developments in Ouwens' work can not be explained solely by the desire to transfer meanings - as one might expect from critical theories in which the legitimacy of free verse and the poetic device of iconicity are closely linked. Considerations of prosody seem to be decisive in his case. The autonomy of visual patterns in relation to acoustic patterns rather seems to suggest something else: a tendency to disconnect forms from meaning that at the moment can be found in the work of other poets as well.