GEZELLE, GUIDO. - Flemish poet and priest, b. at Bruges on 1 May 1830, d. there on 27 Nov. 1899. He is one of the greatest lyric poets of the 19th century. Of modest origin, the son of a gardener, he loved the common people, whom he set out to make happier by revealing to them the beauty of created things. As a pedagogue (he was a teacher in a seminary), G. strove to build character.
Because of his temperament, he found himself forced to leave the seminary, and from this there arose for him a very tormented crisis, which is reflected in his work. Later rector of a convent of nuns at Courtrai, he spent a very happy period there. A folklorist, then twice a publisher, a translator of Longfellow, he decidedly went beyond pure folklorism and became the greatest Flemish poet. He wrote neither in official Dutch nor in the Flemish dialect, but attempted to give to the Dutch language, already common to the Dutch and the Flemings, a personal note, a vigorous local color, harking back to the linguistic richness of his province (and in this regard he had a disciple in his nephew, the great prose writer Stijn Streuvels).
G.'s poetry is characterized by a close fusion of religious feeling with love of his native land. Of his works, mention should be made of the collections Tijdhrans (Crown of Time), Rijmsnoer om en om het jaar (Necklace of Rhymes around the Year) and Laatste Verzen (Last Verses). As a lyric poet he quickly established himself in the Flemish and Dutch lands, even in circles ideologically opposed to him. His monument is the Musée G., in his native city.
Bibliography4 works
Felice Rutten