L’écrivain et poète Gérard de Nerval, de son vrai nom Gérard Labrunie, est une figure majeure du romantisme français. Né le 22 mai 1808 à Paris, il perdit à deux ans et demi sa mère, qu’il n’avait pratiquement jamais vue, et cet évènement semble avoir durablement marqué son psychisme. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Ernest Dowson wrote The Pierrot of the Minute, a short play in verse, in October 1892; this work was commissioned by the American actor-poet William Theodore Peters. It was published in final form by Leonard Smithers in 1897. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Le 12 mars 1887, le poète, romancier et auteur dramatique français Jean Aicard présenta au Cercle Saint-Simon son recueil de vers Le Livre d’Heures de l’Amour, qu’Alphonse Lemerre publia le même mois. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
The English poet Andrew Marvell (1621–1678) lived through several political regimes, and could adapt to each one. He started his career under the Stuart Monarchy, then visited Europe during the Civil War; afterwards he returned to England and held official positions during the republican Commonwealth, finally he served as Member of Parliament during the monarchic Restoration. He could do this by writing complex and sometimes ambiguous poetry, which could be interpreted in several ways. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Here is a strange and beautiful poem about a dead child. The poet remembers lulling her to sleep several years ago, but now the coldness of her death seems unreal, so he wonders whether it is a dream or he is himself dead. The strangeness of the poem, with its doubts about the boundaries between reality and dream, between the living and the dead, is emphasised by the tortured indentation of its lines. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Andrew Marvell (1621–1678) is considered one of the greatest English poets of the seventeenth century. Beside lyric poetry, he wrote political satire, both in verse and in prose, lampooning his contemporaries for their corruption and hypocrisy; most of it was published anonymously, to avoid repression. After his death, many anonymous texts were attributed to him and collected for publication. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Hélène de Fonsèque (1545–1618), fille de René de Fonsèque, baron de Surgères, et d’Anne de Cossé, entra au service de la reine Catherine de Medicis en 1566 en tant que fille d’honneur, puis fille de chambre de la reine de 1567 à 1578. Elle rencontra Pierre de Ronsard (1524–1585) en 1568. Le poète, âgé de 44 ans, tomba amoureux de cette jeune femme de 23 ans, qui fut sa muse jusqu’en 1574. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Dowson wrote several poems about the death of a child. The best known one is probably “The Dead Child “in the volume Decorations published in 1899. In it, the poet wishes to be dead, to share the child’s rest.
The following poem comes from his collection Poésie Schublade (“Drawer Poetry”), which was published only posthumously. It was probably written in the middle 1880’s. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
L’amour est fureur noire, flamme écarlate, passion déchaînée et rebelle inondant l’océan de sang. Voici venir l’invasion des sans-nom. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
Le poète français Germain Marie Bernard Nouveau, né le 31 juillet 1851 à Pourrières dans le Var, reste largement ignoré du grand public.
Au cours de sa jeunesse, il intégra les milieux d’avant-garde et rencontra plusieurs poètes, en particulier Charles Cros, Mallarmé, Arthur Rimbaud et Paul Verlaine. Frappé d’une crise de folie mystique en 1891, il fut interné à l’hôpital Bicêtre d’où il sortit après quelques mois. Il traversa plusieurs crises mystiques proches de l’aliénation, et finit par entreprendre une vie de mendiant et de pèlerin. Revenu dans son village natal en 1911, il y mourut d’un jeûne trop prolongé le 4 avril 1920. CONTINUE READING / CONTINUER LA LECTURE…
