Although in those days there were already 14 surgeons active in Dunkirk, De Swaen must have found enough patients as he complained in an occasional poem about the limited time he could spend on poetry.

The 17th century was a decisive period in the history of the Low Countries and the events of that time also considerably affected De Swaen's own life.

In 1662, De Swaen being eight years old, England sold the Flemish town of Dunkirk to King Louis XIV of France.

The French influence was nonetheless not felt at once; a significant part of the population continued to speak Dutch till the end of the 19th century.

What De Swaen might have thought about the French occupation can indirectly be understood by reading the sonnet in which he looks back with unconcealed nostalgia on a journey in the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands; he visited Rotterdam, where he lodged at his son's place.

De Swaen seems to have preferred the Dutch standards and values above those that his occupied country had to offer under French rule; there is no doubt about that after reading the sonnet aen den Heer Van Heel:[1] From: De zedighe doot van Carel den Vijfen; aen den heer Van Heel, my onbekent, over syne clacht, op myn vertrek, uyt Hollant, Michiel de Swaen Michiel de Swaen wrote in the Dutch standard language of that time, the one all Dutchmen can understand (alle Nederlanders konnen begrypen) as his friend, the rhetorician and printer Pieter Labus did put it into words.

The admiration for the lost native country was a constant in the Dutch literature in that part of Flanders that had been occupied by the French and even today still is.

For many French Flemish citizens De Swaen is a symbol of their rich cultural past that helped define their actual identity.

In 1700, De Swaen participated in a dramatics competition, called the landjuweel, organised by the Bruges chamber of rhetoric, the Drie Santinnen.

Disappointed for only having obtained the second prize and facing the existing standards of the Bruges competition, he attempted to formulate a poetical theory Neder-duitsche digtkonde of rym-konst, which he made after the prototype of that by Aristotle.

De Swaen withdrew to a certain extent from his occupation with the chamber of rhetoric on the grounds of his Christian belief, although he had often been stimulated by his friends - the rhetoricians.

De Swaen's poems were often inspired by religion and have presumably been influenced by humanist authors such as Jacob Cats and Joost van den Vondel.

De Swaen's theoretical study Neder-duitsche digtkonde of rym-konst proves his erudition, especially his knowledge of works by 17th century French poet-playwright Pierre Corneille and Aristotle's Poetics.

He handed over his Dutch translation of Pierre Corneille's Le Cid to Barentin, an administrator of the French king Louis XIV.

[6] One day Jacquelijn, the wife of Teunis the shoemaker, goes to the market where she buys a capon for a family feast to take place that evening.

Today, together with Maria Petyt and Edmond de Coussemaker, he is one of the most prominent representatives of Dutch culture in France; Guido Gezelle called him the Vondel of Duinkerke.