George Métivier (29 January 1790 – 23 March 1881) was a

Guernsey Guernsey ( ; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; ) is the second-largest island in the Channel Islands, located west of the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy. It is the largest island in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, which includes five other inhabited isl ...

poet dubbed the "Guernsey Burns", and sometimes considered the island's

national poet A national poet or national bard is a poet held by tradition and popular acclaim to represent the identity, beliefs and principles of a particular national culture. The national poet as culture hero is a long-standing symbol, to be distinguished ...

. He wrote in

Guernésiais Guernésiais (), also known as Guerneseyese, ''Dgèrnésiais'', Guernsey French, and Guernsey Norman French, is the variety of the Norman language spoken in Guernsey. It is sometimes known on the island simply as "patois". As one of the langues d ...

, which is the indigenous language of the island. Among his poetical works are ''Rimes Guernesiaises'' published in 1831. Métivier blended together local place-names, bird and animal names, traditional sayings and orally transmitted fragments of medieval poetry to create themes. :''Que l'lingo seit bouan ou mauvais / J'pâlron coum'nou pâlait autefais'' (whether the "lingo" be good or bad, I’m going to speak the way we spoke back then), wrote Métivier. He was born in Rue de la Fontaine, St Peter Port, Guernsey, in the night of 28–29 January 1790. He used the

pen-name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

''Un Câtelain'', as his grandfather, a

Huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

by origin, had settled in Castel. As a young man, Métivier had studied in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

and

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

for a career in medicine, but had abandoned the idea of becoming a doctor to devote himself to linguistics and literature. His poems were published in Guernsey newspapers from 1813 until his death and since. George Métivier corresponded publicly in verse form with Robert Pipon Marett ("Laelius"), the

Jèrriais ( ; also known as the Jersey language, Jersey French and Jersey Norman French in English) is a Romance languages, Romance language and the traditional language of the Jersey people. It is a form of the Norman language spoken in Jersey, an isla ...

poet. He translated the Gospel according to Matthew into Guernésiais for publication by Prince Louis-Lucien Bonaparte, who visited him in 1862.''La Gazette Officielle de Guernesey'' 13 September 1862 Métivier's close friend and protégé was

Denys Corbet Denys Corbet (22 May 1826 – 21 April 1909) was a Guernsey poet, naïve painter, and schoolmaster, the second son of Pierre Corbet, a seafarer, and Susanne (''née'' de Beaucamp). He was born at La Turquie, Vale, Guernsey, Channel Islands and i ...

1826-1909, born in Vale, Guernsey.

Influence

The first to produce a

dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...

of the Norman language in the

Channel Islands The Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They are divided into two Crown Dependencies: the Jersey, Bailiwick of Jersey, which is the largest of the islands; and the Bailiwick of Guernsey, ...

, Métivier's ''Dictionnaire Franco-Normand'' (1870) established the first standard

orthography An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis. Most national ...

- later modified and modernised. At the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th century, a new movement arose in the

, led by writers such as Métivier and writers from

Jersey Jersey ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...

. The independent governments, lack of censorship and diverse social and political milieu of the Islands enabled a growth in the publication of

vernacular literature Vernacular literature is literature written in the vernacular—the speech of the "common people". In the European tradition, this effectively means literature not written in Latin or Koine Greek. In this context, vernacular literature appeared ...

— often satirical and political. Most literature was published in the large number of competing newspapers, which also circulated in the neighbouring

Cotentin peninsula The Cotentin Peninsula (, ; ), also known as the Cherbourg Peninsula, is a peninsula in Normandy that forms part of the northwest coast of France. It extends north-westward into the English Channel, towards Great Britain. To its west lie the Gu ...

, sparking a literary renaissance on the Norman mainland.

''La Victime''

Patois Poems of the Channel Islands 1883

:''Veis-tu l’s écllaers, os-tu l’tounère?'' :''Lé vent érage et la née a tché!'' :''Les douits saont g’laïs, la gnièt est nère -'' :''Ah, s’tu m’ôimes ouvre l’hus - ch’est mé!'' :(Do you see the lightning, do you hear the thunder? :The wind is raging and the snow has fallen! :The brooks are frozen, the night is dark - :Ah, if you love me open the door - it’s me!)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Metivier, George Guernsey poets Norman-language poets 1790 births 1881 deaths Guernsey writers 19th-century poets People from Saint Peter Port