Nicholas Michell (4 June 1807 – 6 April 1880), was a Cornish writer, best known for his poetry.

Personal life

Michell, born at

Calenick Calenick ( kw, Klunyek) is a hamlet in the civil parish of Kea, about a mile south of Truro in Cornwall, England, UK. It is at the head of Calenick Creek, which opens into the River Truro near Sunny Corner. Calenick is also the name of a grade ...

, near

Truro Truro (; kw, Truru) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Cornwall, England. It is Cornwall's county town, sole city and centre for administration, leisure and retail trading. Its ...

, Cornwall, a son of John Michell (1774–1868), who was known as the "father of the tin trade", a tin smelter and

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...

, and one of the discoverers of

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. After attending

Truro Grammar School Truro Cathedral School was a Church of England school for boys in Truro, Cornwall. An ancient school refounded in 1549 as the Truro Grammar School, after the establishment of Truro Cathedral in the last quarter of the 19th century it was responsi ...

, Michell was employed in the office of his father's smelting works at Calenick, and afterwards in London. He married, on 3 August 1836, Maria Waterhouse; she died in Penzance on 9 June 1887, aged 74. Michell himself died in Tehidy Terrace, Falmouth, 6 April 1880, and was buried in St. Kea churchyard on 12 April.

Career

He wrote poems from an early age; was encouraged by Thomas Campbell and other literary men, and contributed to the ''Forget-me-not'', the ''Keepsake'', and other annuals. But it was not till after the publication of his ''Ruins of Many Lands'' in 1849 that Michell succeeded in attracting much public attention. This work supplies poetical descriptions of nearly all the existing remains of ancient people and kingdoms in the old and new world. His next work, produced in 1853, was the ''Spirits of the Past'', a title altered in a subsequent edition to ''Famous Women and Heroes''. ''The Poetry of Creation'' followed in 1856, and ''Pleasure'', a poem in the heroic measure, appeared in 1859, with sketches and tales introduced. ''The Immortals, or Glimpses of Paradise'', was composed in 1870 in Cornwall, and is the most imaginative of the author's productions. ''Sibyl of Cornwall'', a story in verse, deals with love and adventure, the scene being laid on the north coast of his native county. He also wrote several novels, but these did not obtain so large a circulation as his poems.

Other works

Besides the works already mentioned, Michell was the author of: *''The Siege of Constantinople, with other Poems'', 1831 *''Living Poets and Poetesses, a Biographical and Critical Poem'', 1832 *''An Essay on Woman'', 1833 *''The Saxon's Daughter, a Tale of the Crusades'', 1835 *''The Fatalist, or the Fortunes of Godolphin'', 3 vols. 1840 *''The Traduced, an Historical Romance'', 3 vols. 1842 *''The Eventful Epoch, or the Fortunes of Arthur Clive'', 3 vols. 1846 *''London in Light and Darkness, with all the Author's Minor Poems, now first collected'', 1871 *''The Heart's Great Ruler, a Poem'', and ''Wanderings from the Rhine to the South Sea Islands'', 1874 *''Nature and Life, including all the Miscellaneous Poems with many Original Pieces'', 1878. A collected edition of his ''Poems'' appeared in 1871.

References

;Attribution * {{DEFAULTSORT:Michell, Nicholas 1807 births 1880 deaths People from Truro People educated at Truro Cathedral School English male poets 19th-century English poets 19th-century English male writers