Decort

Decort, FRANS, a Flemish lyrical poet, born at Antwerp, 21st June 1834. At first he was engaged in trade, later he edited newspapers, was secretary to a steamship company, and became in 1861 secretary to the general auditor in the Cour Militaire at Brussels, where he died, 18th January 1878. Decort's poetry deals mainly with the simple joys and sorrows of the family hearth, but it does not lack passion and power. For some years he issued at Antwerp a very popular almanac, Jan en Alleman. Various collections of his poems were Liederen (2 vols. 1857-59), Zingzang (1866), and Liederen (1868). In 1862 he published a fine Flemish translation of some of Burns's songs.