Egbert Martin

Egbert Martin ( 1861 – June 23, 1890), writing under the alias Leo, was a 19th-century Guyanese poet.

His poetry deal mostly with spiritual topics, while also focusing on the themes of African-Guianese history. Recurring themes of his works include change, disintegration, and death, which have been frequently associated with his frail health condition. Martin was highly regarded by contemporary critics and is considered as Guyana's first major poet, despite his death from tuberculosis at the age of 29. He had a cousin named Edwin Heyliger, suggesting German ancestry.

When he was 19, Martin's poetry was published in Guianese journal The Colonist, and he contributed to other publications such as The Argosy and Echo between 1881 and 1890. In 1887, he won a kingdom-wide competition at an event organised by the London Standard to commemorate Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee, for appending two verses to the British national anthem. Martin was the first poet to write about the landscape of Guyana. Martin is regarded as the founder of modern Guyanese literature.

Works

Leo's Poetical Works (1883) (OCLC 59536839) Leo's Local Lyrics (1886) (OCLC 990705298) Scriptology (1885), short stories Selected Poems of Egbert Martin (2010), The Caribbean Press, The Guyana Classics Library – Government of Guyana