The POETS of MODERN FRANCE part2 - 5
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GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY



[161]



GENERAL BIBLIOGRAPHY

Huret, Jules : enquete sur Devolution litteraire.
1891.

Moore, George: impressions and opinions. 1891.

Gourmont, Remy de : l'idealisme. 1893.

weigand, w. : essays zur psychologie der deca-
DENCE. 1893.

Mockel, Albert: propos de litterature. 1894.

Wyzewa, Teodore de: nos ma!tres. 1895.

Lazare, Bernard: figures contemporaines. 1895.

Doumic, Rene: les jeunes. 1896.

Gourmont, Remy de: le livre des masques. 1896.

Vigie-Lecocq, E. : la poesie contemporaine. 1897.

Bahr, Hermann: skizzen und essays. 1897.

Kahn, Gustave: preface aux premieres poemes.
1897.

Gourmont, Remy de : le second livre des masques.
1898.

Pelissier, Georges: etudes de litterature contem-
poraine. 1898.

Gourmont, Remy de: l'esthetique de la langue
francaise. 1899.

Crawford, Virginia : studies in french literature.
1899.

[163]



Souza, Robert de : la poesie populaire et le lyrisme

sentimental. 1899.
Symons, Arthur: the symbolist movement in lit-
erature. 1899.
Bordeaux, Henry: les ecrivains et les mojurs.

1900.
Thompson, Vance: french portraits. 1900.
Gourmont, Remy de: la culture des idees.

1900.
Mauclair, Camille : l'art en silence. 1900.
Gregh, Fernand: la fenetre ouverte. 1901.
Bran des, Georg: samlede skrifter. fransk lyrik.

vol. vii. 1901.
Hauser, Otto: die belgische lyrik von 1880-1900.

1902.
Charles, J. Ernest: la litterature d'aujourd'hui.

1902.
Kahn, Gustave: symbolistes et decadents. 1902.
Gosse, Edmund: French profiles. 1902.
Beaunier, Andre: la poesie nouvelle. 1902.
MendIs, Catulle : rapport sur le mouvement poet-

IQUE FRANCAIS DE 1867 A I9OO. ig02.

Doumic, Ren?: hommes et idees. 1903.

Rett?, Adolph : le symbolisme. anecdotes et sou-
venirs. 1903.

Daxhelet, Arthur : une crise litt?raire : symbol-
isme ET SYMBOLISTES. 1904.

Bosch, Firmin van den : impressions de litterature
contemporaine. 1905.

[164]



Pelissier, Georges: etudes de litterature et de

moral contemporaine. i905.
Zilliacus, Emil: den nyaren franska poesin OCH

ANTIKEN. I905.
GOURMONT, REMY DE : PROMENADES LITTERAIRES. (4
VOLS.) I905 ff.

Le Cardonel, Georges et Vellay, Charles: la lit-
terature CONTEMPORAINE. I905.
Casella, Georges et Gaubert, Ernest : la nouvelle

LITTERATURE. 1895-I905. I906.

Rimestad, Christian: fransk poesi i det nittende

aar-hundrede. i906.
Blum, Leon: en lisant. reflexions critiques.

1906.
Hamel, A. G. van: het letterkundig leven van

FRANGRIJK. I9O7.

Oppeln-Bronikowski, F. von: das junge frank-

REICH. 1908.

Grautoff, Otto und Erna: die lyrische bewegung

im gegenwartigen frankreich. 1911.
Visan, Tancrede de: l' attitude du lyrisme con-

TEMPORAIN. lgil.

Key, Ellen: seelen und werke. 1911.
Mercereau, Alexandre : la litterature et les idees

NOUVELLES. igi2.

Barre, Andre: le symbolisme. 1912.
Heumann, Albert: le mouvement litteraire
belge d'expression francaise depuis 1880. 1913.
Lowell, Amy: six French poets. 1915.

[165]



BIOGRAPHICAL AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL
SKETCHES OF THE THIRTY POETS



THE THIRTY POETS

STEPHANE MALLARME (1842-1898)

was born at Paris of a family of public servants in whom
a taste for letters had been traditional for several genera-
tions. He completed his preliminary studies at various
lycees and, having already begun the study of English
in order to read Poe, passed some time in England during
his twentieth year. The result was a modest independ-
ence gained by the teaching of English at colleges and
lycees first in the South of France, then in Paris from
1862-1892. Already known to men of letters by his
verses and translations of Poe, he was revealed to the
younger generation by the skilful quotations and praise of
J. K. Huysmans in his novel A Rebours in 1884. Now
began the period of Mallarme's.true fame and wide influ-
ence. Unfortunately he survived his retirement from
active teaching for only six years. But it is doubtful
whether fuller bodied works would have come from his
mystical fastidiousness. His admirable work both as a
poet and an inspirer of poetry was done.

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Criticism and Biography:

Mauclair, Camille: Stephane Mallarme. (n. d.)'
Mockel, Albert: Stephane Mallarme: Un Heros.

1899.
Wyzewa, Teodore de : Notes sur Mallarme. 1886.

The Poetical Works :

Poesies Completes. 1887. Vers et Prose, florilege.
1893. Poesies Completes. 1899.

PAUL VERLAINE (1844-1896)

was born at Metz, the son of a Captain in the French
army. The poet's earliest years were passed in various
garrison towns. In 1851 Captain Verlaine left the serv-
ice and settled in Paris. After some preparation Paul en-
tered the old Lycee Bonaparte, was made bachelier es
lettres in 1862, obtained employment first, curiously
enough, with an insurance company, then in several pub-
lic offices. But soon, especially after the death of his
father, he neglected his duties, associated with men of let-
ters, and published his first two volumes which were prac-
tically unnoticed. In 1870 he married, became involved
in the Commune, left Paris, already at odds with his wife
and given to drinking, and formed the fatal friendship
with Arthur Rimbaud. The two fled in July, 1872,
passed together many months of strange wandering in
England and Belgium where, in a fit of jealousy, Ver-
laine shot and wounded Rimbaud. The court at Brus-
sels condemned the poet to two years imprisonment dur-
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ing which time his conversion to Catholicism took place.
After his liberation he lived for a year in England, re-
turned to France, taught for a while, engaged in a num-
ber of rash and unsuccessful adventures in farming and,
having lost his excellent mother in 1886, drifted into that
life of passage from hospital to slum and slum to hospital
which has become famous as an instance of the union of
extreme misery and the highest artistic glory. "A bar-
barian, a savage, a child," as Jules Lemaitre wrote, "but
one who heard voices heard by none before."

Criticism and Biography:

Coucke, J. : Paul Verlaine. 1896.

Dullaert, M. : Verlaine. 1896:

France, Anatole: La Vie litteraire. (3e serie)
1891.

Lemaitre, Jules: Les contemporains. (4e serie)
1889.

Lepelletier, Edmond: Paul Verlaine, sa Vie, son
Oeuvre. 1907.

Morice, Charles: Paul Verlaine, L'Homme et
L'Oeuvre. 1888.

Watzoldt, S. : Paul Verlaine : Ein Dichter der De-
cadence. 1892.

The Poetical Works:

Poemes saturniens. 1866. Fetes galantes. 1869.
La Bonne Chanson. 1870. Romances sans Paroles.
1874. Sagesse. 1881. Jadis et Naguere. 1884.
Amour. 1888. Parallelement. 1889. Dedicaces.
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1889. Femmes. 1890. Bonheur. 1891. Choix de
Poesies. 1891. Chansons pour Elle. 1891. Li-
turgies intimes. 1892. Elegies. 1893. Odes en
son honneur. 1893. Dans les limbes. 1894.
fipigrammes. 1894. Chair. 1896. Invectives.
1896. Oeuvres Completes. 5 Vols. 1899-1900.
Oeuvres posthumes. 1903.

ARTHUR RIMBAUD (1854-1891)

was born at Charleville in the Ardennes. Though also
the son of an army officer he passed his childhood in a
sheltered home. Fresh from school the precocious lad ran
away, was brought back, escaped a second and a third
time, formed the connection with Verlaine and, having
recovered from his wounds, travelled in England, Ger-
many, Italy, volunteered with the Carlist army in Spain,
with the colonial troups of Holland, deserted and wan-
dered through Java. He returned to Europe, travelled
with a circus but finally, helped by his family, departed
definitely for the Orient, oblivious of the life of letters,
living his literature, merchant in strange lands, purveyor
of weapons to the Negus of Abyssinia, dying of a tumor
of the knee in Marseilles whither he had gone to visit his
family.

Criticism and Biography:

Ammer, K. L. (Eingeleitet von Stefan Zweig) :
Arthur Rimbaud. Leben und Dichtung. 1907.

[172]



Berrichon, Paterne: La Vie de Jean-Arthur Rim-
baud. 1897.
Delahaye, Ernest: Rimbaud. 1906.
Rimbaud, Jean- Arthur : Lettres de. 1899.
Verlaine, Paul: Les Poetes Maudits. 1884.

The Poetical Works:

Poesies completes. 1895. Oeuvres de Jean-Arthur
Rimbaud. 1898.

GEORGES RODENBACH (1855-1898)

was born at Tournai in Belgium of a cultivated family
of purely Flemish origin. Early, however, his family
moved to Ghent where he attended the college of Sainte-
Barbe and the university, taking, in due time, his doctor-
ate in law. In 1876 he went to Paris, engaged in the
life of letters, established himself at the Brussels bar in
1885 but returned definitely to Paris two years later.
"He will take his rank," wrote Verhaeren, "amongst those
whose sadness, gentleness, subtle sentiment and talent fed
upon memories, tenderness and silence weave a crown of
pale violets about the brow of Flanders."

Criticism and Biography:

Casier, J.: L'Oeuvre poetique de Georges Roden-

bach. 1888.
Daxhelet, A.: Georges Rodenbach. 1899.
Guerin, Charles: Georges Rodenbach. 1894.

[173]



The Poetical Works:

Le Foyer et les Champs. 1877. Les Tristesses.
1879. Ode a la Belgique. 1880. La Mer ele-
gante. 1881. L'Hiver mondain. 1884. LaJeun-
esse blanche. 1886. Du Silence. 1888. Le
Regne du Silence. 1891. Les Vies encloses. 1896.
Le Miroir du ciel natal. 1898.

EMILE VERHAEREN (1855-1915)

was born at Saint-Amand near Antwerp of a family of
solid Flemish bourgeois, probably of Dutch descent.
From the village school at Saint-Amand he proceeded first
to Brussels, then to the College of Sainte-Barbe in Ghent
where Rodenbach had preceded and Maeterlinck was to
follow him. His family destined him to succeed his
uncle in the latter's oil refinery. He worked a year in
its office, then went to the University of Louvain, com-
pleting his studies in the law, forming lettered friend-
ships, joining in the founding of La Jeune Belgique. He
practised his profession tentatively for a space, but from
1883 on devoted himself wholly to literature. His career
now becomes the story of those inner changes and ad-
ventures analysed in the text and of the growth of his
fame first in Belgium and France, later in Germany,
finally in England and America. He died from injuries
sustained in an accident.

Criticism and Biography:

Bazalgette, Leon: Emile Verhaeren. 1907.

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Boer, Julius de : fimile Verhaeren. 1908.
Buisseret, Georges: L'Evolution Ideologique de

fimile Verhaeren. 1910.
Gauchez, M.: fimile Verhaeren. 1908.
Guilbeaux, Henri : fimile Verhaeren. 1908.
Schellenberg, E. A. : Emile Verhaeren. 1911.
Schlaf, Johannes : fimile Verhaeren. 1905.
Zweig, Stefan: fimile Verhaeren. German and

French editions: 1910: English, 1914.

The Poetical Works:

Les Flammandes. 1883. Les Moines. 1886. Les
Soirs. 1887. Les Debacles. 1888. Les Flam-
beaux noirs. 1890. Au bord de la Route. 1891.
Les Apparus dans mes Chemins. 1891. Les Cam-
pagnes hallucinees. 1893. Almanach. 1895. Les
Villages illusoires. 1895. Les Villes tentaculaires.
1895. Les Heures Claires. 1896. Les Visages
de la Vie. 1899. Petites Legendes. 1900. Les
Forces tumultueuses. 1902. Toute la Flandre.
Les Tendresses premieres. 1904. Les Heures
d'Apres-midi. 1905. La Multiple Splendeur. 1906.
Toute la Flandre. La Guirlande des dunes. 1907.
Toute la Flandre. Les Heros. 1908. Toute la
Flandre. Les Villes a Pignons. 1909. Les
Rythmes souverains. 1910. Les Heures du Soir.
1911. Toute la Flandre. Les Plaines. 1912.
Les Bles mouvants. 1912.



[175]



JEAN MOREAS (1856-1910)

was born at Athens, a descendant of two Greek families
illustrious in peace and war. His real name, too cum-
bersome for a French man of letters, was Papadiaman-
topoulos. His education at Athens was wholly French
and, as a very young man, he took up his residence in
Paris* His life was devoted wholly to literature. Hav-
ing visited various German cities, as well as Italy, he
made his last visit to his native country in 1897. From
then on his preoccupation with poetry was complete.

Criticism and Biography:

Gourmont, Jean de: Jean Moreas. 1905.
Maurras, Charles. Jean Moreas. 1891.
France, Anatole. La Vie litteraire. (4e serie.)
1892.

The Poetical Works:

Les Syrtes. 1884. Les Cantilenes. 188G. Le
Pelerin passione. 1891. Eriphyle, poeme suivi de
Quatre Sylves. 1894. Les Stances (Ier et He
livres). 1899. Les Stances. (Hie, We, Ve, et
Vie livres). 1901.

JULES LAFORGUE (1860-1887)

was born at Montevideo where his father was tutor.
The boy was placed early in the lycee at Tarbes where he
remained until the family returned to Europe and settled
in Paris. Completing his education in 1879 Laforgue
[176]



formed his momentous friendship with M. Gustave Kahn.
There followed years of severe literary poverty until in
1881, partly through the influence of M. Paul Bourget,
Laforgue was appointed reader to the Empress Augusta
at Berlin. In 1886 he left this post, married a young
Englishwoman whom he had met in Berlin, but already
fallen into consumption survived this event only one year.

Criticism and Biography:

Dufour, Mederic : L'Esthetique de Jules Laforgue.

1905.
Mauclair, Camille: Jules Laforgue, Essai. Avec

une Introduction de Maeterlinck. 1896.

The Poetical Works:

Les Complaintes. 1885. L'Imitation de Notre-
Dame la Lune. 1886. Le Concile feerique.
1886. Derniers Vers. 1890. Poesies Completes.
1894.

HENRI DE REGNIER (born 1864)

is descended from a family distinguished even amid the
older nobility of France. From his native place Hon-
fleur, the family moved to Paris in 1874 and Regnier
passed through the College Stanislas where he had
already written. He studied law but began publish-
ing verse almost immediately. He took a vital part
in the founding of the Symbolist movement, sought out
Verlaine and was Mallarme's closest intimate among the
younger men. In 1896 he married Mile. Marie de Here-

[177]



dia, second daughter of the author of Les Trophees and
herself a poet of distinction. M. de Regnier, almost as
celebrated to-day in prose fiction as in verse, has never
had to wait for recognition. It came to him early: it
gave him the opportunity of undivided devotion to art.
He is by common accord the representative French poet of
his time.

Criticism and Biography:

Gourmont, Jean de: Henri de Regnier et son

oeuvre. 1908.
Leautaud, Paul. Henri de Regnier. 1904.
Mauclair, Camille: Henri de Regnier. 1894.

The Poetical Works:

Lendemains. 1885. Apaisement. 1886. Sites.
1887. Episodes. 1888. Poemes anciens et ro-
manesques. 1890. Tel qu'en Songe. 1892. Are-
thuse. 1895. Les Jeux rustiques et divins. 1897.
Les Medailles d'Argile. 1900. La Cite des Eaux.
1902. La Sandale ailee. 1906. Le Miroir des
Heures. 1911.

FRANCIS VIELE-GRIFFIN (born 1864)

is a native of Norfolk, Virginia. He was taken to
France in his boyhood, received a wholly French edu-
cation and printed verse in his adopted tongue as early
as 1885. He was one of the strongest theoretical spirits
in the Symbolist movement, edited one of its early re-
views, fought for it and has remained true to it ever since.

[178]



A wide reading of the criticism and poetry of his period
serves to heighten one's sense of his wide influence and of
the esteem in which he and his work are held by his fel-
low craftsmen in France.

Criticism and Biography:

Henri de Regnier : Francis Viele-Griffin. 1894.

The Poetical Works:

Cueille d'Avril. 1886. Les Cygnes. 1887. Joies.

1889. Les Cygnes. Nouveaux Poemes. 1892.

La Chevauchee d'Yeldis et autres poemes. 1893.

II0A01, poemes. 1894. La Clarte de Vie. 1897.

La Partenza. 1899. L' Amour sacre. 1903. Plus

loin. 1906. La Lumiere de la Grece. 1912. Voix
d'lonie. 1914.

GUSTAVE KAHN (born 1859)

is a native of Metz, of Jewish birth. He studied at
the ?cole des Chartes and the Jtcole des langues orien-
tales and spent four years of his early manhood in
Africa. In 1885 he returned to Paris, resumed his liter-
ary work and, a year later, founded La Vogue, the little
review which saw the birth of free verse. Almost at the
same time he edited (with Moreas and Paul Adam) Le
Symboliste and in 1889 revived La Vogue. These de-
tails are important in the history of French poetry. M.
Kahn's claims as the founder of the free verse move-
ment have been disputed. But the movement first found

[179]



expression through him and he gave it its complete critical
theory. Up to 1897 he devoted himself to poetry. Since
he has written fiction but chiefly criticism of a very subtle
and penetrating kind.

Criticism and Biography:

Feheon, Felix: Kahn. (Les Hommes d'aujourd'-

hui.) n. d.
Randon, G. : Gustave Kahn.

The Poetical Works :

Les Palais Nomades. 1887. Chansons d'amant.
1891. Domaine de Fees. 1895. La Pluie et le
Beau Temps. 1895. Limbes de Lumiere. 1895.
Le Livre d'Images. 1897.

STUART MERRILL (born 1863)

is a native of Hempstead, Long Island. His child-
hood and boyhood were passed in Paris and at the
Lycee Condorcet he had as fellow-students half a dozen
of the future Symbolists. In 1885 he returned to New
York, studied law at Columbia, and in 1890, published
through Harper & Brothers a series of translations
from contemporary French literature called Pastels in
Prose. He returned to France, devoted himself to poetry
and Socialistic work and wrote articles on French litera-
ture for the New York Times and Evening Post.
Neither as a social reformer — often through the medium
of the arts — nor as a poet of ever deeper and riper power

[180]



— though in a foreign tongue — has M. Merrill ever re-
ceived the recognition in his native country which is his
due.

The Poetical Works :

Les Gammes. 1887. Les Fastes. 1897. Petits
Poemes d'Automne. 1895. Les Quatre Saisons.
1900.

MAURICE MAETERLINCK (born 1862)

It would be superfluous to give a sketch of Maeter-
linck here. For a full discussion of his dramatic works
with bibliographical material the reader is referred
to: Lewisohn: The Modern Drama (2nd Ed.) 1917.
Maeterlinck abandoned poetry early. What he did write
in verse is interesting as contributing the peculiar Maeter-
linckian note also to modern French poetry.

The Poetical Works :

Serres chaudes. 1889. Douze Chansons. 1896.

REMY DE GOURMONT (1858-1915)

was born at the chateau de la Motte at Bazoches-en-
Houlme. On his father's side he came of a family of
famous printers and engravers of the Fifteenth and Six-
teenth Centuries, on his mother's side he was a collateral
descendant of Malherbe. As a youth he was an employe
of the Bibliotheque nationale. An article of his in the
Mercure de France offended official patriotism and he

[181]



was dismissed. He now gave himself up to his vast in-
tellectual labors as poet, critic, dramatist, philosopher,
biologist, novelist, grammarian, etc., contributing to
French, German, Austrian, North and South American re-
views and publishing dozens of volumes of an extraordi-
nary intellectual richness, subtlety and stylistic charm.
A great man of letters, if a poet of but secondary
rank.

Criticism and Biography:

Querlon, Pierre de : Rimy de Gourmont. 1903.
Vorluni, Giuseppe: Remy de Gourmont. 1901.

The Poetical Works :

Hieroglyphes. 1894. Les Saintes du Paradis.
1899. Oraisons mauvaises. 1900. Simone, poeme
champetre. 1901. Divertissements. (A reprint of
the contents of the earlier volumes together with:
Paysages spirituels, Le Vieux Coffret and La Main.
1914.

ALBERT SAMAIN (1858-1900)

was the son of a family of small bourgeois of Lille. Los-
ing his father at fourteen he had to leave school and
passed difficult years in commerce. The government
service first at home, later (1880) in Paris brought relief
and increased leisure. His shy and frugal genius came
to a rather late maturity, and when at last a measure of
fame was his, bereavement and ill health had already
broken him.

[182]



Criticism and Biography:

Bersaucourt, Albert de : Conference sur A. Samain.

1907.
Bocquet, Leon : Albert Samain, sa Vie, son Oeuvre.
1905.

The Poetical Works :

Au Jardin de L'Infante. 1893. Aux Flancs du
Vase. 1898. Le Chariot d'Or. 1901.

EDMOND ROSTAND (born 1868)

For a detailed account of Rostand the reader may again
be referred to Lewisohn: The Modern Drama (2nd
Ed.) 1917. M. Rostand is curiously below his highest
level when not using the medium of drama. But his in-
clusion here was necessary to mark an important element
in modern French poetry.

The Poetical Works :
Les Musardises.

FRANCIS JAMMES (born 1868)

is a native of Tournay (Hautes-Pyrenees) a thorough
Frenchman of the South. His grandfather emigrated
to South America, his father was born there. After
the latter's early death the poet, having been a collegian
at both Pau and Bordeaux settled with his mother
at Orthez where he has since lived and which he has
made famous by his verse. He published first in lo-

[183]



cally printed pamphlets. One of these attracted the at-
tention of the Mercure de France in 1893. The reviewer,
observing a dedication to Hubert Crackanthorpe, reasoned
that Jammes must be a printer's error for James. So
humble were the beginnings of a poet who soon conquered
a very distinct and secure fame for himself. His per-
sonal beliefs and tastes and history need hardly any com-
mentary beyond his verses.

The Poetical Works :

Four pamphlets of verse, all printed at Orthez be-
tween 1891 and 1894. Un Jour, poeme dialogue.
1896. La Naissance du Poete. 1897. De l'Ange-
lus de l'Aube a l'Angelus du Soir. 1898. Le Deuil
des Prime veres. 1901. Le Triomphe de la Vie.
1902. L'?glise habillee de feuilles. 1906. Clair-
ieres dans le Ciel. 1906. Pensee des Jardins.
1906. Poemes mesures. 1908. Les Georgiques
Chretiennes. 1912.

CHARLES GUERIN (1873-1907)

was born of a family of wealthy manufacturers of Lune-
ville. He studied at Nancy, lived alternately at Lune-
ville and Paris and spent much time in Germany and
Italy. His reputation was established early, but a crisis
of the soul which made him a Catholic seemed to rob him
of lyrical spontaneity. He was aware of this fact which
lends pathos to some of his last verses.

[184]



The Poetical Works:

Joies grises. 1894. Sonnets et un Poeme. 1897.
Le Coeur Solitaire. 1898. Le Semeur des Cendres.
1901. L'Homme Interieur. 1905.

HENRY BATAILLE (1872)

is a native of Nimes. His single volume of verse is of
extraordinary originality and earned for him a place in
Gourmont's Livre des Masques. It is unfortunate that
the writing of his vigorous but by no means first rate
plays has permitted him to add but a few new poems in
the second edition of his original collection.

The Poetical Works:

La Chambre Blanche. 1895. Le Beau Voyage.
1904. r

PAUL FORT (born 1872)

is a native of Rheims. Of his origin or family little
information is available at present. As a youth of
eighteen he founded the Theatre d'Art in opposition to
the dominance of Naturalism and presented The Cenci
and pieces by Verlaine, Maeterlinck, Gourmont, etc. In
1893 the theatrical venture collapsed and M. Fort turned
definitely to poetry. His productivity since then has been
enormous. To live and write the sixteen volumes of the
Ballades frangaises in twenty years is, in itself, a sufficient
biography.

[185]



The Poetical Works:

Ballades frangaises. 1897. Montagne. Ballades
frangaises. He Serie. 1898. Le Roman de Louis
XI. Ballades franchises. Hie Serie. 1899. Les
Idylles Antiques. Ballades frangaises. IVe Serie.
1900. L'Amour marin. Ballades frangaises. Ve
Serie. 1900. Paris Sentimental ou le Roman de nos
vingt ans. Ballades frangaises. Vie Serie. 1902.
Les Hymnes de feu. Ballades frangaises. Vile
Serie. 1903. Coxcomb ou l'homme tout nu, tombe
du Paradis. Ballades frangaises. Vllle Serie. 1906.
lie de France. Ballades frangaises. IXe Serie. 1908.
Montcerf. Ballades frangaises. Xe Serie. 1909.
La Tristesse de l'homme. Ballades frangaises.
Xle Serie. 1910. L'Aventure Eternelle. Bal-
lades frangaises. Xlle Serie. 1911. Montlhery-
La-Bataille. Ballades frangaises. XHIe Serie.
1912. Vivre en Dieu. Ballades frangaises. XI Ve
Serie. 1912. Chansons Pour se consoler d'Etre
Heureux. Ballades frangaises. XVe Serie. 1913.
Les Nocturnes. Ballades frangaises. XVIe Serie.
1914.

HENRI BARBUSSE (born 1874)

is a native of Asnieres. He is a dramatic critic, a dis-
tinguished journalist and novelist. His early poems,
charming in themselves, take on an added interest now as
coming from the author of Le Feu.

[186]



The Poetical Works:
Pleureuses. 1895.

PIERRE LOUYS (born 1870)

is a native of Paris and the son of a distinguished
house. His education was learned and, unlike the ma-
jority of modern French poets, he is a scholar in the
technical sense. His work as a man of letters is al-
most wholly the result of the influence of his Greek studies
upon his ardent temperament. His novel Aphrodite
( 1896) made his reputation international : his pseudo-
versions of Greek poetry have deceived the learned. His
publication of verse in which he speaks in his own person
has been limited.

Criticism and Biography:

Gaubert, Ernest: Pierre Louys. 1904.
Wilamowitz-Moellendorf, Ulrich von: Pierre
Louys. Gottingische Gelehrte Anzeigen. 1896.

The Poetical Works:

Astarte. 1891. Les Poesies de Meleagre. 1893.
Les Chansons de Bilitis. 1894.

CAMILLE MAUCLAIR (born 1872)

a native of Paris and of Jewish origin is one of the most
fertile minds of modern France. An admirable poet and
story writer he has achieved his highest distinction as a
critic of literature, of thought and of painting.

[187]



Criticism and Biography:

Aubry, G.-Jean: Camille Mauclair. 1905.

The Poetical Works:

Sonatines d'Automne. 1895. Le sang park.
1904.

FERNAND GREGH (bom 1873)

is a native of Paris. His rise to fame because one of
his poems was mistaken by good judges for Verlaine's
was sudden. But he has known how to sustain it and
his work commends itself, more than that of most of
the younger men, to the acknowledged chiefs of French
criticism, Faguet and Lanson.

The Poetical Works:

La Maison de l'Enfance. 1897. La Beaute de
vivre. 1900. La Clarte humaine. 1904. L'Or
des Minutes. 1905. La Chaine eternelle. 1910.

PAUL SOUCHON (born 1874)

is a native of Laudun on the Rhone. He is practically
the only modern French poet of immediate peasant de-
scent, which may account for the clearness, the sobriety,
the realism of his work. He has written — an uncommon
thing in this age — only verse.

The Poetical Works:

Les Elevations poetiques. 1898. Nouvelles Eleva-
[188]



tions poetiques. 1901. Elegies Parisiennes. 1902.
La Beaute de Paris. 1904.

HENRY SPIESS (1876)

is a native of Geneva and an interesting representative of
the French literary movement in West Switzerland. He
is a lawyer and started out with a whimsical but poetical
interpretation of his profession.

The Poetical Works:

Rimes d' Audience. 1903. Le Silence des Heures.
1904. Chansons captives. 1910.

MAURICE MAGRE (born 1877)

is a native of Toulouse and strove, for a time, to make
his native city a centre of literature and criticism. He
then abandoned it for Paris where his productivity in
later years has been largely in the direction of poetic
drama. (Les Belles de nuit. 1913).

The Poetical Works:

fiveils. 1895. La Chanson des Hommes. 1898.
Le Poeme de la Jeunesse. 1901. Les Levres et le
Secret. 1906.

LEO LARGUIER (born 1878)

is a native of La Grand' Combe in the Cevennes. Al-
most alone among the younger poets he has kept clear
of Symbolism and carries on consciously and with an

[189]



air of magnificence the tradition of Lamartine and
Hugo. Forced, apparently, into several sorts of superior
hack-work {Les Grands ?,crivains a travers les Grands
Villes) he has not, like many of his contemporaries,
abandoned his admirable poetic work.

The Poetical Works:

La Maison du Poete. 1903. Les Isolements.
1906. Jacques, poeme. 1907. Orchestres. " 1914.

CHARLES VILDRAC (born 1882)

a native of Paris, is one of the leaders of the latest move-
ment — a subtle thinker, a remarkable experimenter in
verse.

The Poetical Works:

Poemes. 1905. Images et Mirages. 1908. Le
Livre d' Amour. 1910. Decouvertes. 1912.

GEORGES DUHAMEL (1882)

:;, like his brother-in-law Vildrac, a Parisian and an
insurgent, and collaborated with him in the most definite
statement of the achievement and principles of the new
school: Les Poetes et La Poesie. 1914.

The Poetical Works:

Des Legendes, des Ba tallies. 1907. L'Homme en
Tete. 1909. Selon ma Loi. 1910. La Lumiere.
1911.

[190]



EMILE DESPAX (1881)

is a native of Dax, a man of liberal education, a govern-
ment official, an excellent example of the more traditional
poetic workman of France.

The Poetical Works:

Au Seuil de la Lande. 1902. La Maison des Gly-
cines. 1905.



[190



INDEX OF THE FIRST LINES IN
FRENCH AND ENGLISH



INDEX OF FIRST LINES

Attestant la blancheur native des chairs mates, 97
Showing the whiteness of flesh faint and fair

Belle heure, il faut nous separer, no
'Tis time for us to say good-night

Ce petit air de cloche errant dans le matin, 139

Faint music of a bell which dawn brings to my ear
C'est une face fine et legere, 112

Hers is a fine and buoyant face
C'est un trou de verdure, oii chante une riviere, 181

There's a green hollow where a river sings
Cette fille, elle est morte, est morte dans ses amours, 135

This girl is dead, is dead in love's old way
Chaque fois qu' Adam rencontre five, 137

Each time that Eve and Adam meet
Couche-toi sur la greve, et prends en tes deux mains, 105

Rest on the shore and take in your two hands

Dans la rue, a midi, quand la marree humaine, 148
When in the street at noon the human tide

Dans la salle en rumeur un silence a passe, 124
On the loud room falls silence like a trance

Dans le vieux pare solitaire et glace, 75

In the old park, lonely and bound by frost
[195]



D'autres viendront par la pre, 109

Others will come across the plain
De ses quatre pieds purs faisant feu sur le sol, 142

His pure feet striking sparks of flint that rise
Du cote de Paris, 141

On the way to Paris
Du front de la montagne, 158

From the tall mountain's brow

En allant vers la Ville ou Ton chante aux terasses, 99
On our way to the city of the singing street

Encore un livre : 6 nostalgies, 96

Another book! How my heart flees

En province, dans la langueur matutinale, 82

In small towns, in the languid morn and frail

Heroique foret de legende et de songe, 106
Heroic forest of legend and of dream

II est ainsi de pauvres coeurs, 88

With hearts of poor men it is so
II faut admirer tout pour s'exalter soi-meme, 90

To exalt thyself all life exalted deem
II meurt sur les plus hautes branches, 146

Upon the topmost branches dies
II pleut. Je reve. Et je crois voir entre les arbres, 160

Musing, I seem upon the glistening space

J'ai cherche trente ans, mes soeurs, 119
I have sought thirty years, my sisters
[196]



J'ai vu les femmes qui s'en vont, 143

/ have seen gentle ladies fade
J'allais par des chemins perfides, 77

Sad and lost I walked where wide
Je fais souvent ce reve etrange et penetrant, 74

Often this strange and poignant dream is mine
Je sais que tu es pauvre, 127

That thou art poor I see
Je suis l'ane savant, celui meme qui etonne, 129

I'm the trained ass, the very ass who can
Je t'ecris et la lampe ecoute, 145

The clock ticks the slow minutes out

La colline boisee vient border la riviere, 136

The wooded hill slopes down even unto the stream
L'ambre, le seigle mfir, le miel plein de lumiere, 133

Amber, ripe rye or honey full of light
La lune s'attristait. Des seraphins en pleurs, 73

The moon grew sad. The tear-stained seraphim
Le ciel est, par-dessus le toit, 80

Above the roof the sky expands
L'enfant lit l'almanach pres de son panier d'oeufs, 130

The child reads on. Its basket of eggs stands by
Le moulin tourne au fond du soir, tres lentement, 83

In deep grey dusk the mill turns faltering
Le piano que baise une main f rele, 78

The key-board which frail fingers gently stir
Les grand'routes tracent des croix, 85

The highways run in figure of the rood
[197]



Les fenouils m'ont dit: II t'aime si, 93

The fenel says: so mcd his love
Les mains que je vois en reve, 149

Hands that in my dreams I see
Les roses etaient toutes rouges, 79

Too red, too red the roses were
Les sept filles d'Orlamonde, 118

The seven daughters of Orlamonde
Le Seraphin des soirs passe le long des fleurs, 123

The evening's angel passes where flowers glow
Lorsque je serai vieux et qu'illustre poete, 153

When I am old and poet of renown
Lorsque l'heure viendra de la coupe remplie, 108

Spare me from seeing, goddess, by my bed

Mais c'est au coeur de la foret, 137

But on a hidden forest ground
Mon front pale est sur tes genoux, 114

Against thy knees my pallid brow

Ne dites pas: la vie est un joyeux festin, 94

Say not: Life is a joyous festival
Nous avons, nous aussi, nos fards, nos artifices, 151

We, too, no less, have all our little arts

O bel Avril epanoui, 1 1 1

lovely April, rich and bright
O ma fille, ouvre la porte, 144

my daughter, open the gate
[198]



On voit, quand vient l'automne, aux fils telegraphiques,

You see in Autumn on the telegraph wires

Par les vitres grises de la lavanderie, 134

Here, in the laundry, through the blurred window-
pane
Porte haute ! ne crains point l'ombre, laisse ouvert, 103

Fear not the shadow! Open, lofty gate

Quand de la tragique vie, 94
When the heaviness and void

Si Ton gardait, depuis des temps, des temps, 155
// one were to keep for many years and days

Simone, la neige est blanche comme ton cou, 120
Simone, white as thy throat the snow I see

Sous vos longues chevelures, petites fees, 92
little fairies, under your long, long hair

Un coup de tonerre! Et l'effroi, 138

The thunder's peal! Against my side

Un petit roseau m'a suffit, 101
A little reed has been enough

Va cherche dans la vieille foret humaine, 121

Go seeking in the human forest old
Venez avec des couronnes de primeveres dans vos mains,
116
Oh, come with crowns of primroses that in your
hands are borne


 
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