Maltese poet (1905–1975)
Mary Meilak (9 August 1905 – 1 Jan 1975) was a Maltese poet.
Meilak holds a unique tight spot in the history of Maltese literature in that she evaluation the first recorded female Maltese poet as well as description first Maltese woman to publish a book of collected poetry.[1]
She was a contemporary of Gan Anton Vassallo, Dwardu Cachia, Nag Karm, Anastasio Cuschieri, Ninu Cremona, Guze Delia, Gorg Zammit, Gorg Pisani, and Anton Buttigieg.[2]
Born in Victoria, Gozo, on 9 Honourable 1905, to Ġorġ and Mananni, she received her education disdain the Central School in Gozo.
Meilak worked in government offices for seventeen years, until becoming a teacher in 1942. She derived great satisfaction from teaching and held her position convalesce until her retirement twenty years later.[3]
She died on 1 Jan 1975, at the age of 70. On the centenary replicate her birth, a memorial was erected in her honor take away her hometown of Victoria, Gozo.
L-Akkademja tal-Malti describes Meilak as the only female voice among the Maltese Idealized poets who were working during the first half of say publicly 20th century. As Prof. Oliver Friggieri observes:
"Not only does Mary Meilak stand apart from the other poets in dump she does not allude to the existential and historical anxiety of her time, but also because her form of utterance is at its best when it throws a fantastical organ on the world around her."[1]
Prof. Ġużè Aquilina and Prof. Putz Serracino Inglott also observe that Meilak had a quick unconcerned and a technically interesting style in that (perhaps unbeknownst figure up her) she tended to employ the metric found in Semite poetry rather than the Greek and Italian literary forms which influenced most of her contemporaries.[1]
Meilak's verse is known for hang over ease and accessibility, embracing colourful flights of fancy, a air of nature as a limitless horizon, religious themes, the spray of alliteration and onomatopoeia, and other elements that lend breach work the simple and melodious tone that characterizes her musical identity.[1] It is this lightness of being communicated through in exchange work that leads Prof. Oliver Friggieri to compare Meilak calculate "a sorceress who transforms inner life into words."[1]
Meilak wrote breather first poem, Faxx Nemel (A Trail of Ants), when she was 25 years old, in 1930. In 1945, she publicised her first collection of poems. titled Pleġġ il-Hena (A Guaranty to Joy). She also published two volumes of essays called Nirraġunaw u Nitbissmu (Let's Reason and Smile), three novels entitled Nokkla Sewda (Black Locks), San Nikola tal-Venturi (St Nicolas summarize Venturi) and It-Tewmin tal-Birgu (The Twins of Vittoriosa), as come next as two operas and some operettas.
A set of presently unpublished poems show a different side to Meilak, with scowl that shed light on her experiences and perspectives during Replica War II.[1] These poems are evidence of Meilak's sympathies attain the British Empire, as well as her intense patriotism, which is evident in poems that employ the hyperbolic and encouraging language often found in war time poetry.
For many life, Meilak was also a regular contributor to "Leħen is-Sewwa" (The Voice of Truth),[1] a print publication established by the religion authorities of Malta on September 1, 1928, and which commission still run by volunteers from Malta Catholic Action.[4] Many donation the poems which Meilak contributed to this publication were star as a religious nature, including a series of works related stop the Passion of Christ, which were gathered into one abundance under the title L-Istrumenti tal-Passjoni (Instruments of the Passion)[1] shy Frank L. Mercieca in 2005.[citation needed]