O'SHAUGHNESSY, ARTHUR

born March 14, 1844, London, Eng. died Jan. 30, 1881, London in full Arthur William Edgar O'shaughnessy British poet best known for his much-anthologized Ode (We are the music-makers). O'Shaughnessy became a copyist in the library of the British Museum at age 17 and later became a herpetologist in the museum's zoological department. He published four volumes of verse: An Epic of Women (1870), Lays of France (1872), Music and Moonlight (1874), and Songs of a Worker (1881). O'Shaughnessy was strongly influenced by the work of Algernon Charles Swinburne and the artists and writers of the Pre-Raphaelite group. He is representative of many Victorian poets for whom a concentration on musicality and emotions was more important than intellectual content.