About
LEZENSWAARD / WORTH READING - INTERNATIONAL MULTILINGUAL ANTHOLOGY - WORLD LITERATURE - BOOK EXCERPTS - POEMS ////// A LIRE - ANTHOLOGIE INTERNATIONALE MULTILINGUE - LITTERATURE UNIVERSELLE - MORCEAUX CHOISIS - POEMES ////// LESENSWERT - INTERNATIONALE MEHRSPRACHIGE ANTHOLOGIE - WELTLITERATUR - TEXTAUSZÜGE - GEDICHTE
REVIEW
by an online American literary magazine, February 2, 2026"The free website Lezenswaard / Worth Reading welcomes you the way a reading room does: a warm yellow background, black type, and nothing tugging at your sleeve. This simplicity is intentional, and you feel it the moment you start clicking around. Everything is just a few steps away - authors, texts, translations. The 'You may also like' suggestions feel less like algorithms and more like a librarian pointing you toward a shelf you might enjoy. There's no pressure, no hidden agenda. What struck me the most is what the site refuses to do. It doesn't interpret the literature for you or tell you what to think or why a text matters. It trusts you - the reader - to meet the works on your own terms. Lezenswaard / Worth Reading isn't flashy, but it's generous. It gives literature space to breathe and gives readers the freedom to wander. It's one of the more thoughtful literary corners of the internet."
NAVIGATION GUIDE
Every time you click "Home" on the Lezenswaard website, five short reading excerpts of several authors at random are shown under "HIGHLIGHTED". You can choose a language and select the form of literature: poetry or prose. The authors are listed in alphabetical order. Scroll the list and search for the author of your choice. When clicking the author's name, a selection of his/her work appears as well as four short excerpts of related authors at the bottom of the page under "YOU MAY ALSO LIKE ...". You can also look up an author's Name, a title or a short phrase by entering it in the SEARCH Engine.
SELECTION CRITERIA
The authors mentioned are all obviously good, = very good, = excellent, = outstanding, = very best/brilliant. The personal taste of the Editor, the author's fame and the intrinsic literary value are taken into account, i.e. is it well written, is it evocative /empathic /fascinating /gripping /moving /original /timeless /universal? Or is it socially/historically relevant?
DATA
5 950 authors (of which 1 300 Dutch-speaking poets & 1050 English poets) are selected. My website www.Lezenswaard.be has had 700 000 pageviews up to now and 400 000 visits from all over the world. The Dutch, English, French & German texts are shown in the original language.
CONTACT
Use the Contact page for having a notable text/translation added, when a text is inaccurate or attributed to a wrong author. Requests for admission or useful suggestions for improvements/additions to this anthology are always welcome. Lezenswaard is on FACEBOOK too: 8 000 followers, see https://www.facebook.com/lezenswaard
OTHER HANDY & FREE LITERATURE WEBSITES
Multilingual
- www.babelmatrix.org
- www.gutenberg.org
- openlibrary.org
- www.goodreads.com
- romenu.eu/category/literatuur/
English
- poetryfoundation.org
- www.poemhunter.com
- www.bartleby.com
- www.literature.org
- www.poetry-archive.com
- allpoetry.com/famous-poems
Nederlands
- www.schrijversgewijs.be
- www.gedichten.nl
- www.dbnl.org
- www.leestafel.info
- www.literatuurgeschiedenis.org
Deutsch
- www.gedichte-lyrik-online.de
- gedichte.xbib.de
- www.aphorismen.de
- www.zgedichte.de/gedichte.html
- "die schönste deutschen gedichte"
Français
DISCLAIMER
LEZENSWAARD / WORTH READING is a PRIVATE, NON-COMMERCIAL initiative of Z.A.J. De Meester, Webmaster-Editor. All rights reserved ©. This exclusively online Anthology with poems & short prose excerpts is intended for use by literature lovers or FOR EDUCATIONAL/ INFORMATIVE PURPOSES. It is in line with Belgian Copyright Law, Art. 21,1., which is based upon international law on the protection of literary works.
COMPILATION COPYRIGHT: the concept and contents of this literature website cannot be traded by a third party. Only with proper attribution to the source text selections identical to those in this website may be stored or reproduced in social media, other media, or any publication.
Any statements or opinions expressed in the poems or book excerpts shown in this anthology reflect only the views of the authors mentioned. Any referenced author or his/her rightful claimant(s) is/are entitled to have the author's entry removed upon simple request.
The aforementioned Editor reserves he right to select, add, or remove a text or a block of text by an author if he deems it necessary; consequently, the contents of this literature website vary continuously. All texts shown remain the copyright of their respective owners. If the origin of a poem or excerpt is unknown, the mention "Anonymous" is used; if the origin is unclear, the presumed author's name is followed by a question mark.