Born: Bruges, Austrian Netherlands (now Belgium), 1 May 1803. Education: Educated at a seminary in Roeselare, 1846-49. Career: Became priest in 1854; appointed to teaching post at his old school, where his unorthodox pedagogical methods caused his dismissal; co-director, English College, Bruges, 1860-61; teacher of philosophy, Seminarium Anglo-Belgicum, 1861-65; journalist for anti-liberal magazine ‘t Jaer 30, 1864-70, and ‘t Jaer 70, 1870-72; founder and journalist for the illustrated weekly Rond den Heerd [Round the Hearth], 1865-71; parish priest of St. Walburgis, 1865-72; moved to Kortrijk, where he worked as chaplain; continued ecclesiastical and journalistic work for De Vrijheid and Gazette van Kortrijk; recalled to Bruges in 1899, and granted position of rector of the English Convent. Died: 27 November 1899.
Publications Collections
Dichtwerken [Poetical Works]. 10 vols., 1903-05, revised edition, 14 vols., 1913.
Jubileumuitgave [Jubilee Edition]. 18 vols., 1930-39. Werken [Works], edited by Frank Baur. 4 vols., 1949-50.
Briefwisseling [Correspondence], edited by R.F. Lissens. 1970.
Verzameld dichtwerk [Collected Poetry], edited by K. de Busschere. 1980-92.
Evening and the Rose: 30 Poems, translated by Paul Claes and Christine D’Haen, 1989.
Verse
Boodschap van de vogels en andere opgezette dieren [Message from the Birds and Other Stuffed Animals]. 1856.
Vlaemsche dichtoefeningen [Flemish Poetry Exercises]. 1858.
Kerkhofblommen [Graveyard Flowers]. 1858.
XXXIIIKleengedichtjes [Thirty-Three Little Poems]. 1860.
Gedichten, gezangen en gebeden [Poems, Songs, and Prayers]. 1862, reprinted 1976.
Liederen, eerdichten et reliqua [Songs, Poems of Praise, and Relics]. 1880.
Driemaal XXXIII Kleengedichtjes [Thrice Thirty-Three Little Poems]. 1881.
Tijdkrans [Garland of Time]. 1893.
Rijmsnoer [Rhyme String]. 1897.
Laatste verzen [Last Poems]. 1901. [Selection], translated by M. Swepstone. 1937. [15 Poems], translated by C. and F. Stillman, in Lyrica Belgica I. 1960.
Poems, translated by Christine d’Haen. 1971.
[12 Poems], translated by A. van Eyken, in Dutch Crossing, 35. 1988.
Other
Uitstap in de Warande [Excursion in the Warande]. 1882.
De ring om’t kerkelijk jaar [Ring Around the Church Year]. 1908.
Brieven van, aan, over Gezelle (letters; some in English). 2 vols., 1937-39.
De Briefwisseling tussen G. Gezelle en Ernest Rembry 1872-1899, edited by C. Verstraeten. 1987.
Translator, Hiawatha, by Longfellow. 1886.
Critical Studies:
Woordkunst van Guido Gezelle by J. Craynet, 1904; Het leven van Guido Gezelle by A. Walgrave, 1924; Guido Gezelle by Henriette Roland Hoist, 1931; Guido Gezelle by A. Visser, 1949; Guido Gezelle en de andere by H. Bruning, 1954; Guido Gezelle by A. van Duinkerken, 1958; Van het leven naar het boek by J.J.M. Westenbroek, 1967; Guido Gezelle katholiek vrijmetselaar by R. Reniers, 1973; De taalkunst van Guido Gezelle by Albert Westerlinck, 1980; Guido Gezelle: Flemish Priest and Poet by Hermine J. van Nuis, 1986; De wonde in’t hert by Christine d’Haen, 1988; Mijnheer Gezelle by Michel van der Plas, 1991; Gezelle, de dichter: Studies by Jan J.M. Westenbroek, 1995; Gezelle: Humorist by Johan van Iseghem, 1999.
Guido Gezelle is the Dutch poet who singlehandedly took the Dutch language to a summit of beauty and complexity hitherto undreamt of. There are at least five Gezelles. Perhaps the least interesting for literary purposes is Gezelle the journalist. Since he was a priest who could obviously write well, Gezelle was forced by his bishop to invest much time and energy in political journalism, both to expound the policies of the Catholic People’s Party and to attack and chastise its opponents. In that capacity he made a number of enemies, and the stress connected with his journalistic work brought him to the brink of a nervous breakdown.
Gezelle the linguist or, as he would have preferred to think of himself, the philologist, was interested in the Dutch language in general, and in his own West Flemish dialect in particular. He cultivated the latter for two reasons. The use of this dialect enhanced his poetry, especially in the later phase, as it was more effortlessly melodious than standard Dutch. It was also, he felt (and many agreed), a ”Catholic” Dutch, as opposed to the ”Calvinist” variant that had come to dominate Holland.
The third Gezelle is the educator, whether as teacher in the classroom or as editor (who also often filled whole issues with the fruit of his labour) of weekly magazines designed to teach and to entertain the faithful, particularly those whose education had progressed little beyond acquiring the basic skill of reading itself.
The fourth Gezelle is the priest-poet, responsible for a sizeable part of the poetry that has come down to us. As a priest, Gezelle felt both close to and responsible for the people entrusted to his care and would often write small poems, kleengedichtjes, to commemorate important events in their lives.
The fifth Gezelle, the most interesting, wrote experimental poetry before the term was even conceived of, and poesie pure long before Bremond. For many it is he who represents the ”real” Gezelle. His poetry is constructed around several main themes. Many poems reflect his highly-strung religious idealism. Some are marred by didacticism, while others achieve a level of mystical lyricism rarely equalled in world literature. Other poems represent the reverse of his idealism: a feeling of inadequacy, sinfulness, and despair that is also to be found in the so-called ”terrible sonnets” of Gerard Manley Hopkins, the poet to whom Gezelle is most often compared. Gezelle, however, wrote few sonnets; he preferred experimenting with sound, rhythm, and metre.
Another principal theme is that of friendship. A number of close friends stayed loyal to Gezelle all his life, and he commemorated his affection for them in a number of poems, the best known of which is probably ”Dien avond en die rooze” [That Evening and That Rose].
Throughout his life Gezelle fought for the recognition of Dutch as an official language by the Belgian state, and against the dominant position of French, which was used almost exclusively by the civil service and in the courts, even though the majority of people in Flanders, the northern half of the country, were hardly able to understand it, let alone communicate in it. Some of Gezelle’s ”Flemish” poems are evocations of the glorious past in a somewhat romantic vein. Others, the more interesting, range from parody to an almost incantatory celebration of the sheer range of the language itself.
The last, but certainly not least, main theme is that of nature, which to Gezelle represented the ”visible words” of God, according to the old mystical belief that God spoke to man in words destined for his ears, and written down in the Bible, but also in words destined for his eyes, and present in nature all around him. On the basis of this attitude, any and every celebration of nature, even of the smallest insects, is also a celebration of God himself, and all poetic meditations on nature automatically become religious utterances of prayer. Since Gezelle was a keen observer of all that went on around him, not only (as a philologist) of the language his people spoke, but also (as a poet) of the nature they lived in, or sometimes had to struggle against, he produced many poems that are prayers, or prayers that are poems.
The final 15 years of Gezelle’s life saw his consecration as the national poet of the Flemish people. He was awarded many honours, including a state funeral. The ultimate paradox of his life as a poet is, perhaps, that he will always remain the prisoner of his own excellence. The very virtuosity, inventiveness, and exuberant revelling in the power of the Dutch language that establishes so many of his greatest poems as truly of world stature also militates against their being translatable effectively. For this reason he has not been translated frequently or successfully into any of the more widely spoken languages.
