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Guido Pieter Theodorus Josephus Gezelle (1 May 1830 – 27 November 1899) was an influential writer and poet and a Roman Catholic priest from Belgium. He is famous for the use of the West Flemish dialect, but he also wrote in other languages like Dutch, English, French, German, Latin and Greek.
Guido Gezelle archives
by Bruges Public Library (in English, includes poems in translation) * * *
Gezellehuis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gezelle, Guido 1830 births 1899 deaths Writers from Bruges Flemish poets Flemish activists Flemish priests Belgian Catholic poets 19th-century Belgian Roman Catholic priests 19th-century Belgian male writers
Guido Pieter Theodorus Josephus Gezelle (1 May 1830 – 27 November 1899) was an influential writer and poet and a Roman Catholic priest from Belgium. He is famous for the use of the West Flemish dialect, but he also wrote in other languages like Dutch, English, French, German, Latin and Greek.
Life
Gezelle was born in Bruges in the province of West Flanders to Monica Devrieze and Pieter Jan Gezelle, a gardener. The house where he was born is now literary museum ''Gezellehuis''. Gezelle was ordained a priest in 1854, and worked as a teacher at theMinor Seminary, Roeselare The Minor Seminary, Roeselare (Dutch: ''Klein Seminarie Reoselare''; est. 1806) is a diocesan secondary school in Roeselare, West Flanders, Belgium. Initially primarily a preparatory institution for the Major Seminary, Bruges, it is now a substanti ...
. Interested in all things English and became the chaplain to the , where he died.
His works are often inspired by his mystic love towards God and Creation. Later, his poetry was associated with literary Impressionism, and he is considered a forerunner of that movement.
Gezelle was a proponent of developing the Flemish dialects
Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to the region known as Flanders in northern Belgium; it ...
independently from (now) mainstream Dutch, with its dominantly Hollandic character. The Dutch he used in his poems was heavily influenced by local West Flemish dialect. Gezelle also was a translator of poetry and prose, notably of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's ''Song of Hiawatha'', published in 1886. Having read the original in Roeselare in 1856 the poem interested him for its portrayal of American Indians and their relation to Christian missionaries.
For his linguistic mastery, Gezelle is considered one of the most important poets of Dutch literature.
The Flemish writer Stijn Streuvels (Frank Lateur) was his nephew.
Bibliography
* ''Kerkhofblommen'' (1858) * ''Vlaemsche Dichtoefeningen'' (1858) * ''Kleengedichtjes'' (1860) * ''Gedichten, Gezangen en Gebeden'' (1862) * ''Longfellows Song of Hiawatha'' (translation, 1886) * ''Tijdkrans'' (1893) * ''Rijmsnoer'' (1897) * ''Laatste Verzen'' (1901)See also
*Flemish literature Flemish literature is literature from Flanders, historically a region comprising parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. Until the early 19th century, this literature was regarded as an integral part of Dutch literature. After Bel ...
* Lucy Weguelin
References
External links
* *Guido Gezelle archives
by Bruges Public Library (in English, includes poems in translation) * * *
Gezellehuis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gezelle, Guido 1830 births 1899 deaths Writers from Bruges Flemish poets Flemish activists Flemish priests Belgian Catholic poets 19th-century Belgian Roman Catholic priests 19th-century Belgian male writers