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MASSEY, GERALD (1828-r9o7)

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 867 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MASSEY, GERALD (1828-r9o7) , See also:English poet, was See also:born near See also:Tring, See also:Hertfordshire, on the 29th of May 1828. His parents were in humble circumstances, and Massey was little more than a See also:child when he was set to hard See also:work in a See also:silk factory, which he afterwards deserted for the equally laborious occupation of See also:straw-plaiting. These See also:early years were rendered gloomy by much See also:distress and deprivation, against which the See also:young See also:man strove with increasing spirit and virility, educating himself in his spare See also:time, and gradually cultivating his innate See also:taste for See also:literary work. He was attracted by the See also:movement known as See also:Christian See also:Socialism, into which he threw himself with whole-hearted vigour, and so became associated with See also:Maurice and See also:Kingsley. His first public See also:appearance as a writer was in connexion with a See also:journal called the Spirit of Freedom, of which he became editor, and he was only twenty-two when he published his first See also:volume of poems, Voices of Freedom and Lyrics of Love. These he followed in rapid See also:succession by The Ballad of Babe Christabel (1854), See also:War See also:Waits (1855), See also:Havelock's See also:March (1860), and A See also:Tale of Eternity (1869). Many years afterwards in 1889, he collected the best of the contents of these volumes, with additions, into a two-volume edition of his poems called My Lyrical See also:Life. He also published See also:works dealing with See also:spiritualism, the study of See also:Shakespeare's sonnets (1872 and 1890), and theological See also:speculation. It isgenerally understood that he was the See also:original of See also:George See also:Eliot's See also:Felix See also:Holt. Massey's See also:poetry has a certain rough and vigorous See also:element of sincerity and strength which easily accounts for its popularity at the time of its See also:production. He treated the theme of See also:Sir See also:Richard See also:Grenville before See also:Tennyson thought of using it, with much force and vitality. Indeed, Tennyson's own praise of Massey's work is still its best eulogy, for the See also:Laureate found in him " a poet of See also:fine lyrical impulse, and of a See also:rich See also:half-See also:Oriental See also:imagination." The See also:inspiration of his poetry is essentially See also:British; he was a patriot to the core.

It is, however, as an Egyptologist that Gerald Massey is best known in the See also:

world of letters. He first published The See also:Book of the Beginnings, followed by The Natural See also:Genesis; but by far his most important work is See also:Ancient See also:Egypt: The See also:Light of the World, published shortly before his See also:death. He died on the 29th of See also:October 1907. See an See also:article by J. Churton See also:Collins in the Contemporary See also:Review (May 1904).

End of Article: MASSEY, GERALD (1828-r9o7)

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