O'Shaughnessy, ARTHUR

O'Shaughnessy, ARTHUR, minor poet, was born in London, 14th March 1846. He was employed in the natural history division of the British Museum, married a daughter of Dr Westland Marston, whom he lost in 1879, and followed to the grave on 31st January 1881. During his brief life he published Epic of Women (1871), The Lays of France (1872), and Music and Moonlight (1874); and soon after his death appeared Songs of a Worker (1881). As a poet he is somewhat diffuse, over-gorgeous in colour, and not sufficiently discerning in his admiration for modern French models; yet he reveals imagination, passion, tenderness, melody, and a mastery of lyrical forms.