Poetry

Of all the literary genres, poetry was among the most appreciated throughout the first half of the 19^thcentury. Casimir Delavigne, Alfonse de Lamartine and Victor Hugo achieved tremendous fame thanks to the popularity of their works.

Romanticism was especially visible in poetry. While Lamartine is traditionally considered the pioneer of this new expression of sentiment, Musset, Hugo, Vigny and Nerval were all amongst the current’s foremost representatives. A different form of poetry was launched by Théophile Gautier, who came up with the theory of ‘l’art pour l’art’(art for art’s sake). Poetry thus became less an expression of spiritual suffering and doubt than a pure quest for beauty, and the labour of achieving formal perfection became once more fashionable. By encouraging the youthful Baudelaire and Théodore de Banville, Gautier was to become the spiritual father of a new current, known as Parnassian poetry.

A detached dreamer indifferent to poverty or an unscrupulous opportunist, hardworking or lazy, drunkard or wit, the poet was presented from all angles by satirical journalists and illustrators, almost none of them flattering.  

‘The postures of the elegiac poet are intended to share with the reader his dreams, his emotions and his imminent consumption. ‘Goodness!’ cry the ladies who read him, ‘The poor young man. How pale and wan he must be. How in need of consolation. Were that I could offer him that sweet respite.’ Well, ladies, your patient is healthy as a horse. This unfortunate fellow is living it up, sampling all of life’s pleasures amply; your sublime daydreamer is wont to leave the café in a state of drunkenness that has not a whiff of poetry about it; and yet, were you to beg a few verses from him, he would doubtless deliver a languid and pathetic epistle.’ 

Émile de la Bédollière, The Poet, in Les Français peints par eux-mêmes, Curmer, 1840-1842