French poetry has a rich and illustrious history that has influenced the global literary landscape in innumerable ways.
From the medieval troubadours to the Symbolist movement and beyond, French poets have embraced diverse styles, themes, and forms of expression. Notable figures such as Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, and Paul Verlaine revolutionized poetry with their exploration of symbolism, decadence, and inner emotional landscapes.
French poetry often focuses on musicality, rhythm, and precise language. It’s capable of capturing the nuances of human emotions and everyday life.
‘Tomorrow, At Dawn’ by Victor Hugo follows the speaker as they journey to the grave of a loved one, capturing all the ways in which grief has become their sole fixation.
Tomorrow, at dawn, at the hour when the countryside whitens,
I will set out. You see, I know that you wait for me.
I will go by the forest, I will go by the mountain.
I can no longer remain far from you.
‘More Strong Than Time’ by Victor Hugo is a powerfully romantic poem that declares love as withstanding the withering effects of time.
Since I have set my lips to your full cup, my sweet,
Since I my pallid face between your hands have laid,
Since I have known your soul, and all the bloom of it,
And all the perfume rare, now buried in the shade;
‘Sunset’ by Victor Hugo is a poignant poem that uses the setting sun to explore the speaker’s views on time and life’s various cycles, coming to the conclusion that the grim finality of human life is softened by the continuation of nature’s beauty.
The sun set this evening in masses of cloud,
The storm comes to-morrow, then calm be the night,
Then the Dawn in her chariot refulgent and proud,
Then more nights, and still days, steps of Time in his flight.
In ‘After the Battle,’ Victor Hugo explores compassion amid war, highlighting the moral strength of kindness despite betrayal.
MY father, hero of benignant mien,
On horseback visited the gory scene,
After the battle as the evening fell,
And took with him a trooper loved right well,
‘The Grave and The Rose’ by Victor Hugo is an intriguing poem that inquires and attempts to answer essential questions about death and change.
The Grave said to the Rose,
"What of the dews of dawn,
Love's flower, what end is theirs?"
"And what of spirits flown,
‘Be Drunk’ by Charles Baudelaire is a stirring poem meant to incite the reader to passion about life.
You have to be always drunk. That's all there is to it—it's the only way. So as not to feel the horrible burden of time that breaks your back and bends you to the earth, you have to be continually drunk.
‘Fatigue’ uses humor in order to subvert the readers’ expectations of a poet and their ambitions by seeming to value money over love and art.
I'm tired of Love: I'm still more tired of Rhyme.
But Money gives me pleasure all the time.
‘A Former Life’ by Charles Baudelaire speaks on a the poet’s own imagination and how his creative works are born there and are at his beck and call.
‘Break of Day in the Trenches’ by Isaac Rosenberg delves into the desolate feelings of alienation from the “other” that impacted soldiers in Word War I.
‘George’ by Hilaire Belloc describes one day in the life of a young boy and the consequences of what should have been a benign action.
‘Historic Evening’ is the poem number 32 or 36 in Les Illuminations, depending on the edition and is a prose poem consisting of paragraphs.
‘Mississippi’ by Aimé Césaire depicts the importance of perseverance and strength in the face of any kind of oppression.
‘Pour l’amour de ma doulce amye’ or ‘For the love of my sweet lady,’ is a French lyric composed in the 15th century. It is dedicated to a woman the writer loved.
The French poet Louise Labé, who wrote Sonnet 8, lived as a middle-class citizen in 16th century France. In this poem, she used the Petrarchan form to explain the positive and negative effects of love.
‘Tears Fall in My Heart’ by Paul Verlaine describes the emotional condition of a speaker who does not understand why he is feeling unhappy.
‘The Hippopotamus’ by Hilaire Belloc is an amusing short poem that describes shooting a hippopotamus with platinum bullets.
‘The Rights of Women’ by Anna Lætitia Barbauld is a proto-feminist poem that intones the power that a woman might have if she resists social law and rises up to take control over the world.
‘Zone’ by Guillaume Apollinaire describes a dream-like walk through Paris that spans an entire day, from sunup to sunup.
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