How did Jacques Perk’s Mathilde help begin a new period in Dutch poetry?

Jacques Perk’s Mathilde was instrumental in launching the 1880s literary revival in the Netherlands, a movement that sought to move away from the passionless, rhetorical nature of traditional Dutch writing.12

In 1882, the poet and critic Willem Kloos published the poetry of his late friend, Jacques Perk. Kloos provided an inspired introduction to the work, which included the famous maxim "poetry alone makes life worth living." This introduction is widely considered the manifesto of the 1880 movement.2

By championing Perk’s work, Kloos helped establish a new aesthetic ideal that prioritized beauty as the highest value in art and life. This shift paved the way for the movement's later developments, including the founding of the influential periodical De nieuwe gids in 1885, which solidified the renaissance of Dutch literature and the pursuit of individual emotional expression.12