van Hall in the Dutch literary magazine "The Gids"; Van Hall compared Couperus' poetry with those written by Heinrich Heine, Everhardus Johannes Potgieter and Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft; Jan ten Brink, Couperus' teacher and later professor at the University of Leiden drew comparisons with Constantijn Huygens.

[4][5] Couperus started to write poetry while studying with professor Jan ten Brink.

[6] He wrote most of the poems while living with his father, John Ricus Couperus, mother and brothers and sisters at the Nassauplein in The Hague in 1882-1883.

After he was notified Couperus wrote to Veen: "If you like my poetry that much what would you say if we publish another book with verses"; he wanted to include the poems called Fragment (renamed to Melancholy) Viviane, Williswinde, Ginevra, Semiramis and Fragments from the Apocapyps of John the Apostle.

At the beginning of December 1894 Couperus informed Veen that he agreed with a reprint of Orchids and a new book with the rest of his verses for the sum of 200 guilders.

[15] On the other hand: when Dutch poet Pieter Cornelis Boutens celebrated his 60th birthday in 1930, Het Nieuws van de Dag voor Nederlands-Indië wrote: Boutens is a poet as not many can be found in a country that since half a century is experiencing "a ribbon of poems".