1818-1894.
Born on the island of Bourbon, the tropical landscape that was
familiar to his boyhood recurs constantly in his poems. Coming to
France to complete his studies and to reside, he became the master
spirit among the poets of the middle of the century and the recognized
leader of the Parnassiens. From the beginning he protested vigorously
against the Romanticists of 1830, not only as making an immodest and
on the whole vulgar display of self (cf. _les Montreurs_, p. 199), but
also as inevitably falling short of artistic perfection because, being
possessed, or at least moved, by the emotion they were expressing,
they could not be wholly masters of the instrument of expression. To
be thus wholly master of the resources of poetic art one must be quite
untroubled by one's own personal joys and sorrows, have the brain
clear and free. This call to the poet to rid himself of the personal
element was emphasized by the reflection that individual emotions are
of little importance or interest, being dwarfed by the collective life
of humanity in general, which in turn is overshadowed by the vast
phenomenon of life as a whole, while this again is but a transient
vapor on the face of the immense universe. So the poetic creed of
an impersonal and impassive art was more or less blended with a
materialism pervaded with a buddhistic pessimism that is vexed and
wearied with the vain motions of this human world, and longs for the
rest of Nirvana; and this vexation and weariness frequently rise to a
poignant intensity. However far he may then be thought to be from the
impassive impersonality of his doctrine, there is but one opinion as
to his rare command of form and the exquisite perfection of his art,
which have won for him the epithet _impeccable_.
Works: _Poèmes antiques_, 1853; _Poèmes et poésies_, 1855; _Poésies
complètes_, 1858 (contains the two previous collections); _Poèmes
barbares_, 1862; _Poèmes tragiques_, 1884; _Derniers poèmes_, 1894. He
was also an industrious translator of the Greek poets and of Horace.
For reference: P. Bourget, _Nouveaux essais de psychologie
contemporaine_, 1885; J. Lemaître, _les Contemporains_, vol. ii, 1887;
F. Brunetière, _Évolution de la poésie lyrique_, vol. ii, 1894; also
in Contemporary Review, vol. lxvi.
199. LES MONTREURS. From _Poèmes barbares_. MIDI and NOX are from the
_Poèmes antiques_. The poems from L'ECCLÉSIASTE to REQUIES inclusive,
and also LE MANCHY, are from the _Poèmes barbares_. The rest, except
the last, are from the _Poèmes tragiques_.