High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Gerald Massey (29 May 1828 - 29 October 1907) was an English poet and self-styled Egyptologist. He was born near Tring, Hertfordshire in England. Massey's parents were poor. When little more than a child, he was made to work hard in a silk factory, which he afterward deserted for the equally laborious occupation of straw plaiting. These early years were rendered gloomy by much distress and deprivation, against which the young man strove with increasing spirit and virility, educating himself in his spare time, and gradually cultivating his innate taste for literary work.