Famous French poets

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

France is a country that is ahead of others. It was here that the first revolutions took place, and not only social, but also literary, which influenced the development of art in the whole world. French writers and poets achieved unprecedented heights. It is also interesting that it was in France that the work of many geniuses was appreciated during their lifetime. Today we will talk about the most significant writers and poets of the 19th - early 20th centuries, and also lift the veil over the interesting moments of their lives.

Victor Marie Hugo (1802–1885)

It is unlikely that other French poets can match the scope of Victor Hugo. A writer who was not afraid to raise acute social topics in his novels, and at the same time a romantic poet, he lived a long life full of creative success. Hugo as a writer was not only recognized during his lifetime - he got rich doing this craft.

After the Notre Dame Cathedral, his fame only increased. Are there many writers in the world who managed to live for 4 years on the street of their own name? At the age of 79 (on the birthday of Victor Hugo)a triumphal arch was erected on Eylau Avenue - in fact, under the windows of the writer. 600,000 admirers of his talent passed through it that day. The street was soon renamed Avenue Victor-Hugo.

After himself, Victor Marie Hugo left not only beautiful works and a large inheritance, 50,000 francs of which was bequeathed to the poor, but also a strange clause in the will. He ordered the French capital, Paris, to be renamed Hugopolis. Actually, this is the only item that was not completed.

Theophile Gauthier (1811–1872)

When Victor Hugo struggled with classicist criticism, Théophile Gauthier was one of his brightest and most loyal supporters. French poets received an excellent addition to their ranks: Gauthier not only had an impeccable command of writing technique, but also opened a new era in the art of France, which subsequently influenced the whole world.

Having maintained his first collection in the best traditions of the romantic style, Théophile Gautier at the same time excluded traditional themes from his poems and changed the vector of poetry. He did not write about the beauty of nature, eternal love and politics. Moreover, the poet proclaimed the technical complexity of the verse as the most important component. This meant that his poems, while remaining romantic in form, were not, in fact, romantic - feelings gave way to form.

The last collection, "Enamels and Cameos", which is considered the pinnacle of Theophile Gauthier's work, also included the manifesto of the "Parnassian school" - "Art". He proclaimed the principle of "art for art's sake", which French poets acceptedunconditionally.

Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891)

French poet Arthur Rimbaud inspired more than one generation with his life and poetry. As a teenager, he ran away from home several times to Paris, where he met Paul Verlaine, sending him the poem "The Drunken Ship". The friendly relationship between the poets very soon grew into a love one. This is what caused Verlaine to leave the family.

During Rimbaud's lifetime, only 2 collections of poetry were published, and separately - the debut verse "The Drunken Ship", which immediately brought him recognition. Interestingly, the poet's career was very short: he wrote all the poems between the ages of 15 and 21. And after Arthur Rimbaud simply refused to write. Outright. And he became a merchant, selling spices, weapons and … people for the rest of his life.

Famous French poets Paul Eluard and Guillaume Apollinaire are the recognized heirs of Arthur Rimbaud. His work and persona inspired Henry Miller's essay "The Time of the Killers", and Patti Smith constantly talks about the poet and quotes his poems.

Paul Verlaine (1844–1896)

French poets of the late 19th century chose Paul Verlaine as their "king", but there was little of the king in him: rowdy and reveler, Verlaine described the ugly side of life - dirt, darkness, sins and passions. One of the "fathers" of impressionism and symbolism in literature, the poet wrote poetry, the beauty of the sound of which cannot be conveyed by any translation.

No matter how vicious the French poet was, Rimbaud played a huge role in his futurefate. After meeting the young Arthur, Paul took him under his wing. He was looking for housing for the poet, even renting a room for him for some time, although he was not we althy. Their love affair lasted several years: after Verlaine left the family, they traveled, drank and indulged in pleasures as best they could.

When Rimbaud decided to leave his lover, Verlaine shot him through the wrist. Although the victim retracted the statement, Paul Verlaine was sentenced to two years in prison. After that, he never recovered. Due to the impossibility of abandoning the company of Arthur Rimbaud, Verlaine was never able to return to his wife - she achieved a divorce and ruined him completely.

Guillaume Apollinaire (1880–1918)

The son of a Polish aristocrat, born in Rome, Guillaume Apollinaire belongs to France. It was in Paris that he lived his youth and mature years, until his death. Like other French poets of that time, Apollinaire looked for new forms and possibilities, strove for outrageousness - and succeeded in this.

After publishing prose works in the spirit of deliberate immoralism and a mini-collection of poetry "The Bestiary, or the Cortege of Orpheus", published in 1911, Guillaume Apollinaire publishes the first full-fledged poetry collection "Alcohols" (1913), which immediately attracted attention with its lack of grammar, baroque imagery and tone differences.

The collection "Caligrams" went even further - all the verses that were included in this collection are written in an amazing way: the lines of the works line up in various silhouettes. Reader's viewa woman in a hat appears, a dove flies over the fountain, a vase of flowers … This form conveyed the essence of the verse. The method, by the way, is far from new - the British began to give form to poems in the 17th century, but at that moment Apollinaire anticipated the emergence of the “automatic writing” that the surrealists loved so much.

The term "surrealism" belongs to Guillaume Apollinaire. He appeared after the staging of his "surrealistic drama" "The Tears of Tiresias" in 1917. From that time on, the circle of poets led by him began to be called surrealists.

André Breton (1896–1966)

For Andre Breton, the meeting with Guillaume Apollinaire became a landmark. It happened at the front, in a hospital where young Andre, a medical doctor by education, served as a nurse. Apollinaire received a concussion (a shell fragment hit his head), after which he never recovered.

Since 1916, Andre Breton has been actively involved in the work of the poetic avant-garde. He meets Louis Aragon, Philippe Soupault, Tristan Tzara, Paul Eluard, discovers the poetry of Lautreamont. In 1919, after the death of Apollinaire, shocking poets begin to organize around Andre Breton. Also this year, a joint essay “Magnetic fields” with Philippe Soupault, written using the “automatic writing” method, is published.

Since 1924, after the proclamation of the first Manifesto of Surrealism, Andre Breton became the head of the movement. In his house on Avenue Fontaine, the Bureau of Surrealist Research opens, magazines begin to be published. This marked the beginning of a truly internationalmovements -similar bureaus began to open in many cities around the world.

French Communist poet Andre Breton actively campaigned for his supporters to join the Communist Party. He believed in the ideals of communism so much that he even received a meeting with Leon Trotsky in Mexico (although he had already been expelled from the Communist Party at that time).

Louis Aragon (1897–1982)

A faithful companion and comrade-in-arms of Apollinaire, Louis Aragon became Andre Breton's right hand. A French poet, a communist to the last breath, in 1920 Aragon published the first collection of poems "Fireworks", written in the style of surrealism and Dadaism.

After the poet joined the Communist Party in 1927, together with Breton, his work was transformed. He becomes in some way the "voice of the party", and in 1931 he is prosecuted for the poem "Red Front", imbued with a dangerous spirit of incitement.

Peru Louis Aragon also owns the History of the USSR. He defended the ideals of communism until the end of his life, although his last works returned a little to the traditions of realism, not painted in "red".