Poetry
Benschop started writing poetry in 1948. In the meantime she recited poems of others, with sometimes a few of her own added. She debuted in 1967 by Kok Publishers in Kampen with the volume Gouddraad uit vlas ("Gold thread from flax"). The publisher almost didn't dare to bring it out, but the volume was an enormous success, and was reprinted sixty times. Of all her volumes of poetry, a total of three million copies were sold. Benschop also wrote aphorisms. Several of her poems are often quoted in death notices, especially In memoriam voor een vriend ("In memoriam for a friend").
Her work is deeply Christian, and because of that has not been taken very seriously by literary critics. Her work is considered more pastoral than literary. She said herself, with some self-mockery: "I write meditations in rhyme". Recurring themes in her work are suffering, death and Christian comfort.
Read more about this topic: Nel Benschop
Famous quotes containing the word poetry:
“Good poetry could not have been otherwise written than it is. The first time you hear it, it sounds rather as if copied out of some invisible tablet in the Eternal mind than as if arbitrarily composed by the poet.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)