The first great poet of the century and still one of the greatest. He
passed a quiet youth in the shelter of home influences on his father's
estate near Mâcon, receiving his most lasting impressions from his
mother's instruction, from the fields and woods, and from certain
favorite books, among which were the Bible and Ossian. This education
was supplemented by a visit to Italy in 1811-12, memorable for the
episode of Graziella, and a short service in the royal guards. His
first volume, the _Méditations poétiques_ (1820), was something
entirely new in French letters and made him famous at once. These
poems were saturated with the poet's personality and informed with his
emotions; and to communicate his pervading melancholy he found
the secret of lines which, while they did not yet have the color,
brilliancy, and variety that the Romanticists presently gave to verse,
charmed the ear with a harmony and a music unattained before. His
long poems, with more or less of philosophical intention, especially
_Jocelyn_ (1836), are important works, but it was as a lyric poet that
he made his chief impression.
Works: _Méditations poétiques_, 1820; _Nouvelles Méditations_,
1823; _Harmonies poétiques et religieuses_, 1830; _Recueillements
poétiques_, 1839; _Poésies inédites_, 1839; _Poésies inédites_, 1873;
republished under the same names in various collected editions of his
_Oeuvres_ since 1860.
For reference: Faguet, _Études littéraires sur le dix-neuvième
siècle_, 1887; Sainte-Beuve,_ Premiers lundis_, vol. i; _Portraits
contemporains_, vol. i; F. Brunetière, _Évolution de la poésie
lyrique_, vol. i; _Histoire et littérature_, vol. iii, 1892; F.
Reyssié, _la Jeunesse de Lamartine_, 1891; E. Deschanel, _Lamartine_,
2 vols., 1893; J. Lemaître, _les Contemporains_, vol. vi, 1896; E.
Zyromski, _Lamartine poète lyrique_, 1898.
58. LE LAC. Written September 17-23, 1817; from _les Méditations
poétiques_. The lake here celebrated is Lake Bourget in Savoy. Here
the poet met in 1816 Mme. Charles, wife of the well known physicist,
with whom he fell very much in love and who is immortalized by him
under the names Julie and Elvire. She died Dec. 18, 1817. Cf. Anatole
France, _l'Elvire de Lamartine_, 1893. When this poem was written
Lamartine already knew that she was hopelessly ill. This experience
of his colors many poems of his first two volumes. _Le Lac_ has often
been set to music; most successfully by the Swiss composer Niedermeyer
(1802-1861). For interesting variants in the text see Reyssié, _la
Jeunesse de Lamartine_, p. 201.
L'AUTOMNE. November, 1819; from _les Méditations poétiques_.
61. 9. PEUT ÊTRE L'AVENIR, etc.; "allusion à l'attachement sérieux
que le poète avait conçu pour une jeune Anglaise qui fut depuis la
compagne de sa vie." (Commentaire de l'auteur.) LE SOIR. Spring of
1819; from _les Méditations poétiques_.
63. LE VALLON. Summer of 1819; from _les Méditations poétiques_. "Ce
vallon est situé dans les montagnes du Dauphiné." (Commentaire de
l'auteur.)
65 9. PYTHAGORE; Pythagoras, a Greek philosopher of the sixth century
B.C., who is said to have taught the doctrine that the "organization
of the universe is an harmonious system of numerical ratios."
L'ISOLEMENT. September, 1818; from
_les Méditations poétiques_. Reyssié in the work above cited gives
interesting variants for this poem.
67 LE CRUCIFIX. 1818? From _les Nouvelles Méditations_. "Mon ami M. de
V(irieu), qui assistait aux derniers moments de Julie, me rapporta, de
sa part, le crucifix qui avait reposé sur ses lèvres dans son agonie
... J'écrivis, après une année de silence et de deuil, cette élégie."
(Commentaire de l'auteur.) Compare with this note the eleventh stanza
of the poem, which points back to the time of the Graziella affair.
See below.
70. ADIEU A GRAZIELLA. From _les Nouvelles Méditations_. Graziella,
whose heart Lamartine won during his visit to Naples in the winter
of 1811-12 and whom he abandoned, was the daughter of a Neapolitan
fisherman. She died soon afterward. Later the poet idealized her and
his relation to her and immortalized her memory in his works. Cf. _le
Premier regret_ below.
71. LES PRÉLUDES. 1822; from _les Nouvelles Méditations_. This poem,
addressed to Victor Hugo, consists of several divisions, in different
meters, only the last of which is here given. It inspired the
symphonic poem of Liszt by the same name.
73. HYMNE DE L'ENFANT À SON RÉVEIL. From _les Harmonies poétiques et
religieuses_.
76. LE PREMIER REGRET. From _les Harmonies poétiques et religieuses_.
It was inspired by the memory of Graziella. 7. MER DE SORRENTO, bay of
Naples; Sorrento is a small town on the bay, south-east of Naples.
77. 27. NÉMI; the lake is in the hollow of an extinct volcano, in the
Alban mountains, a few miles southeast of Rome.
81. STANCES. From _les Nouvelles Méditations_. 18. MEMNON, son of
Tithonus and Eos, king of the Ethiopians, slain by Achilles. The
Greeks connected with Memnon various ancient monuments and buildings,
especially the great temple at Thebes and one of the colossi of
Amenophis III., currently called the statue of Memnon; legend reported
of it that when touched by the first rays of the dawn it gave forth a
musical sound.
83. LES RÉVOLUTIONS. From _les Harmonies poétiques et religieuses_.
Only the last of the three divisions of the poem is given here.
84. 20. SIBYLLES ANTIQUES; concerning the sibyls, sibylline books,
and sibylline leaves consult a classical dictionary. 23. VERBE; used
currently for the second person of the Trinity; here it goes back to
a passage in the first division of the poem, where speaking of God's
process of creation; he says:
"Son Verbe court sur le néant!
Il court, et la Nature à ce Verbe qui vole
Le suit en chancelant de parole en parole,
Jamais, jamais demain ce qu'elle est aujourd'hui!
Et la création, toujours, toujours nouvelle,
Monte éternellement la symbolique échelle
Que Jacob rêva devant lui! "