Occasional Poetry

Guido Gezelle wrote hundreds of poems at the request of others for communions, marriages, anniversaries, funerals, inaugurations, congregational celebrations, priestly ordinations, and sisters’ or beguines' entries. You could turn to him for any occasion. Whether it concerned factory girls or noble families, he succeeded like no other in expressing people's feelings and giving his verses a personal recognizable touch. This kind of poetry was important to him. He included them in his collections and sent them to his friends and acquaintances.