l'éternel aliment, poetic order, see
Page 8. — 1. De . . . nommer, by what name shall I call you? "The simple infinitive is often used in exclamations or passionate or surprised questions." — Syn. 2. appelle, conçessive subjunctive. Translate : let one call, etc. 3. toi refers to ô fatale puissance. 4. Si : elliptical conditional sentence. If we complète the sentence, it would be something like this: O how much ?nore just it would be, if, etc. 5. tous tant que nous sommes, every one of us.
Page 9. — 1. Tel, [just~\ so. 2. de sang = sanguinaire ; genitive of quality, modifying dieux. 3. Order : les sanglantes prémices des troupeaux innocents. Prémices is the object of voulaient.
Page 10. — 1. fallait-il, etc. : il is only grammatical subject, the logical subject following. 2. ne . . . que, only. 3. See p. 7, n. 2. 4. See p. 7, n. 2. 5. Du jour, from the day. 6. tu refers to Dieu. 7. The following twenty-seven verses are the answer to the preceding question.
NOTES
8. jalouse du néant, désirons of annihilation. 9. attendant sur le seuil, awaiting at the threshold, i.e. eager to enter in and destroy as soon as complétée!.
Page 11. — 1. L'errante liberté . . . sacrifice, liberty zvandering abroad (i.e. exiled) offered up in sacrifice to the living gods {i.e. the tyrannical rulers) of the world* 2. de l'injustice limits règne in the next verse. 3. Cato, the censor, surnamed Uticensis, to avoid falling into Caesar's hands, resolved to commit suicide, which, after spending the night in perusing Plato's Phœdo, he executed by stabbing himself. 4. Brutus, the so-called Tyrannicide, who had vainly struggled for the re-establishment of the Roman Republic, and at last committed suicide upon being defeated by Octavius. 5. tant . . . autels, have not so many torments, crimes, and punishments, made thy dismal altars smoke with sufficient offerings ? 6. n'éclaire : a négative adjective sentence following a preceding négative sentence loses its complementary particle pas or point. 7. This last stanza is justly praised.
Page 12. — 1. Engloutisse, shall engulf : subjunctive présent after jusqu'à ce que, representing future time.
LA PROVIDENCE À L'HOMME
This poem was written in 1819, the year after Le Désespoir was composed. It was written to atone for the rather impious tone of the latter. See sketch, p. xviii, last paragraph.
Page 13. — 1. déjà . . . sein. Prose order : l'éternelle pensée te portait comme son fruit dans son sein. 2. Des feux, genitive of means. Translate : with the fires, etc.
Page 14. — 1. les ressorts, the forces. 2. éclipsée, ontstripped. The spirit (âme) of course develops at this period of life more slowly than the sensés. 3. ombre altérée, in apposition with le temps. Translate: time, a mere dim shadow of my being, etc. 4. aujourd'hui que, conjunction, now that. 5. crois ... au : croire à= être persuadé de l'existence de.
* The poet himself had been compelled to flee his countrv lo escape being forced to serve under Napoléon against his former king, Louis XVIII.
MÉDITATIONS POÉTIQUES
Page 15. — 1. This verse and the three following are the reply of l'homme to la Providence. 2. demi-jour, twilight.
Page 16. — 1. des bords, front the shores, etc.
Page 17. — 1. oublie. " After verbs of fearing, appréhension, etc., when the principal clause is négative, or implies a négative, the objectclause has no ne when it is affirmative in sensé, but ne . . . pas when it is négative in sensé." — W. Here Peux-tu craindre = you do noi fear. See also p. 29, n. 1. 2. suivent: notice the plural, the two subjects being taken together.
SOUVENIR
This poem was written in 181 9. This is the year in which the most of his best Méditations vvere written. The poet is in the same mood as in V Isolement. The poem was composée! at the side of a favorite fountain near his uncle's château in the mountains of Burgundy. It is the poet's grief that is prominent even at the beloved spot. In 1826, in another mood, he wrote here, La Source dans les bois, in which the very rippling of the fountain's waves can be heard.
Page 18. — 1. image: the référence is to Julie.
Page 19. — 1. Du zéphyr, etc. Order : l'amoureuse haleine du zéphyr. On the next page the form is zéphyre : thèse différent forms are for metrical purposes, as encore, encor, etc.
Page 20. — 1. Qui des nuits, etc. Order : Qui parsèment le voile des nuits. Translate : which stud the veil of night. 2. Plaire à mes regards: plaire requires an indirect object (dative). 3. la trame, woof. Translate : if thy hand should unravel the zvoof of my life, etc. Compare with the myth of the ancients concerning the Parcae.
Page 21. — 1. et je soupire encore,;'^/ / still live ! This poetical nction, that his life is blended with that of the glorified Julie, is so real to the poet that he is surprised to find himself among the living.
LE SOIR
The same mood prevails as in the Souvenir. The scène is in the rucky grove near his uncle's château in Burgundy. Here in this soli-
NOTES
tude the melancholy young poet was wont to seek the healing influence of nature. Lamartine's attitude towards nature is peculiar in French literature. M. De Laprade says : Dans les tableaux de Lamartine la scène semble vivre comme les acteurs. La nature entoure les personnes comme une substance vivante et sympathique en perpétuelle communion avec leur âme. When the moon poured out a flood of light upon the woods, the mild rays penetrate even to his gloomy heart; but at the close of the poem, when the clouds arise, we see a change in him corresponding to that in nature, et tout rentre dans les ténèbres.
Page 22. — 1. Venus: pronounce vénûss. 2. Au: see p. I, n. i. 3. l'astre nocturne, the moon.
Page 23. — 1. la nuit, in the night.
LE VALLON
This méditation, composed some time between 1818 and 1819, in the period of the best méditations in the first volume, is a masterful translation of a transient mood that has at one time or other corne upon us ail. It is a wonderful poem. The enjoyment of it may be increased by noticing the change of the state of feeling before the poem ends. The first mood is expressed by the first two verses : —
Mon cœur, lassé de tout, môme de l'espérance
N'ira plus de ses vceux importuner le sort. #
In the I3th stanza the soothing influence of beautiful nature round about him asserts its influence and leads him back to a cheerful view of life. Nothing could be more real than this, because it is nature itself. The author says in Les Confidences of this poem : Ce fut en Dauphiné dans les ruines du vieux château de sa (Aymon de Virieu) famillt que j'écrivis pour lui la méditation poétique intitulée Le Vallon. Ces vers me rappellent le site et les sentiments que cette solitude, ces bois et ces eaux faisaient alors murmurer en nous. Si l'on écrivait le murmure des bois et des eaux, on aurait mieux que ces faibles strophes. Came du poète est une eau courante qui écrit ses murmures et qui les
156 MÉDITATIONS POÉTIQUES
chante; mais nous les écrivons avec les notes de l'homme et la nature avec les notes de Dieu.
Page 25. — 1. de ses vœux, etc. Order : importuner de ses vœux le sort, etc. 2. aura réfléchi : notice the fine use of the future perfect tense.
Page 26. — 1. Léthé : in mythoî$gy one of the rivers in the loweï world from which the departed shades were compelled to drink to forget the past. 2. L'amour : the référence here is to Julie. 3. le cœur, with the heart full, etc.
Page 27. — 1. avant-coureur : here an adjective, but translate as a noun. 2. Pythagoras, a Greek philosopher who flourished about B.C. 540-510, and gave great attention to mathematics and music. He believed that order or harmony of relation is the regulating principle of the universe. This order, or number or harmony of relation reigns in the tones of the lyre and the regular movement of the celestial sphères, only we are so accustomed to the music of the latter from the start that we cannot hear it; or the sound is so powerful that it exceeds our capacities for hearing.
LE TEMPLE
The same picture is before the poet as in the Souvenir. The scène is in a little village church. Of this poem the poet himself has said : #"One image always placed itself between God and myself : I felt the need of consecrating it." The rest is in the poem.
Page 28. — 1. Q)ue = how. 2. que here repeats quand, from first verse. 3. Qu' = hoiv. 4. nef, nave.
Page 29. — 1. je ne tremble . . . respect, what! I do not tremble \ lest thy Sacred Majesty should resent the [lack of] vénération, etc. " After verbs of fearing, appréhension, etc., when the principal clause is affirmative, or implies an affirmative, the object-clause has ne (here ne venge) when it is affirmative in sensé, and ne . . . pas when it is négative in sensé." — W. Here je ne tremble pas, though négative in form, implies an affirmative. See also p. 17, n. I. 2. Elvire is only
NOTES
another poetic name for Julie. 3. l'enceinte funèbre, the gloomy ihurch-yard.
Page 30. — 1. Depuis que . . . coulé, since my tears began to ftow before you : depuis que without ne refers to the beginning of time of an action.
LA PRIÈRE
This poem was written in 1 819. It is a chef-d'œuvre of the highest order and also a favorite with the author himself. The student should read it over and over till ail the figures stand out clearly.
Page 31. — 1. le voile des nuits — the veil of night. 2. demivoilés, half-clouded.
Page 32. — 1. ces nuages is the subject of sont. 2. que is a relative pronoun, object of roule, which itself has souffle for subject. 3. donnant . . . nature : thèse words repcesent the poet's attitude to nature. He do.es not try to reproduce it as an artist, but as M. de Laprade says, l'anime et la spiritualise.
Page 33. — 1. t'es produit. The student will remember that reflexive verbs are conjugated in the compound tenses with être. 2. Ainsi, thus.
Page 34. — 1. auras . . . borné. " As the future is often used for the présent, so the future perfect sometimes occurs when the perfect would be expected." — Syn. 2. le dernier degré . . . toi, it is the last step which leads me to thee. Death is meant. 3. qui tombe, etc. Translate : which faits down from between thy face and me.
l'homme.
A Lord Byron.
This poem was composed in 18 19. Lamartine himself had the preceding year had a Byronic vein, as we have seen in Le Désespoir, but nis nature was naturally so religious that his .piety soon revived. A short while before this poem was written, Lamartine — then an obscure young man — had seen the illustrious Lord Byron at Geneva. He read
MÉDITATIONS POÉTIQUES
(at the time in translation) fragments from Corsair, Lara, and Man* fred, The impression was naturally very great. His ovvn expérience had opened up to him a large view of black despair. It is touching where the unknown poet relates his own sad expérience, and even the loss of Julie, to the celebrated English master. Faith and piety had solved the question for him, and he points Byron to this better way. The lofty swing of pure and sincère thought throughout the entire pièce lifts it above the suspicion of being a presumptuous moral lecture : it is a fine méditation, and the title, V Homme, is a good one. Byron heard from some one later that a young Frenchman had written a diatribe against his morals. He probably never read the poem. Alfred de Musset, imitating Lamartine's example, afterward wrote his celebrated Lettre à Lamartine (in verse).
Page 35. — 1. Qui que with the subjunctive = whoever. 2. blanchis : notice the agreement of the part, with its object. 3. Athos, mountain in Macedonia; but here stands for high mountains in gênerai. 4. aire, eyrie. 5. d'un sang, etc., genitive, depending upon dégouttants, dripping with blood; etc.
Page 36. — 1. sur un mode infernal, to an infernal tune. 2. que sert = à quoi sert: sert has for subject de lutter contra sa destinée. 3. Hors de là, beyond that, i.e. étroit horizon, three verses above.
Page 37. — 1. When ce is used as grammatical subject, a logical subject is associated with the grammatical; de t'expliquer, etc., is logical subject here. 2. Que, see p. 7, n. 2. 3. Soit que . . . soit que =
zvhether . . . or.
Page 38. — 1. ce qu'il aime est fragile : a touching référence to the poet's own expérience in the case of Julie. 2. eut banni : see p. 7, n. 1. 3. l'exil de la vie: life is here conceived as a temporary exile from the truer and higher state of man. 4. elle refers to nature in following verse. 5. mot, explanation.
Page 39. — 1. J'ai devancé les temps, / have peered into tht future. 2. J'étudiai, etc., / studied the law by which the planets roll: qui refers to la loi as if personal. 3. la sibylle: Apollo spoke through the mouth of the sibyl who, when under divine inspiration, lost çonsciousness, and became the passive mouthpiece of deity. Her oracles
NOTES
tvere uttered in a state of religious frenzy and intoxication. The poet once hoped that nature in her convulsions might likewise utter an oracle.
Page 40. — 1. le mieux is a substantive formed from the comparative. Translate : that which is better. 2. blasphémé : the référence is to the poem Le Désespoir. 3. Celui refers to himself.
Page 41. — 1. moi, indirect, assign to me. 2. accourra s'y ranger, will hasten to obey. 3. Soit que, conjunction, to be connected with the following concessive subjunctive. Translate : even though it be that, etc. 4. Glorieux, proud. 5. ni si haut, ni si bas : i.e. (as above mentioned) neither destined to illuminate the worlds by god-given light nor to remain a forgotten atom. 6. les deux infinis, the two infinities, darkness and light.
Page 42. — 1. A tout autre degré, ai every other degree [below the human in the scale of life]. The poet here feels that the light of intelligence lets us see more clearly our misery. The Italian poet Leopardi expresses the same thought at length in his dialogue, Delta Natura e di Urû Anima. 2. J'eusse été, L should have been. The pluperfect subjunctive is equal to the conditional perfect (second conditional). 3. Un seul être, Julie. 4. lentement: the young lady, Julie, was afflicted with an incurable malady, perhaps consumption, and did not have hopes of living long. The poet met her in 1816; her death occurred in 1818, — a year before the composition of this poem.
Page 43. — 1. doive, subjunctive. After superlatives or équivalent expressions, as le dernier, le premier, le seul, etc., the verb in the following relative clause is in the subjunctive. 2. que connected with bien = how well. 3. que: see p. 4, n. 1. 4. toi . . . humains, thou tuho dost hold in thy hand the throbbing heart of feeling 7?iankind : notice that words which resemble the English are not always synonyms with the English.
Page 44. — 1. que here repeats peut-être que. 2. Auraient ravi, the conséquence (apodosis) of the preceding conditions.
l'immortalité.
There is no date to this poem. It, like Le Lac, was written, in most part, before the time of the other Méditations. The poem was found
in a somewhat différent form among the poet's papers, after his death, bearing the name Julie. The student will remember that Julie and Elvire are identical. This young lady's health was so poor that her death was often before her mind as a menace. The poet, himself troubled, here consoles her in this philosophical strain. This was probably the original spirit of the poem, but later, some time between 1818 and 1819, after the death of Julie, he took up the poem again, *nd we feel a différence in the tone in places where the inspiration of the other great méditations written in 181 8 and 1819 appears. The ending of the original poem is altogether différent from the verse —
Est-ce pour le néant que les êtres sont nés ?
to the end. The powerful closing verse in our text —
Vois mourir ce qui t'aime et réponds-moi!
makes us feel deeply that the source of the inspiration of thèse words was in the real expérience of the death of a loved one. Thèse changes, made at such a favorable time, have greatly enhanced the value of the poem, which, thus strengthened by this powerful close, becomes a fine masterpiece.
Page 46. — 1. aurore, i.e. youthtime, when natural hopefulness and love give promise of a yet brighter time. From the very beginning of their amour, serions sickness and other troubles clouded their happiness. 2. que, etc. : see p. 7, n. 2. 3. chant des morts, hymn over the dead. 4. glaive, poetical word. See list, p. 145, vii.
Page 47. — 1. que . . . vers: may I at last lift myself up to. 2. ce que c'est, etc., I do not know ivhat it is to be born. 3. hôte inconnu, guest, as if only temporarily in the body. 4. oubli nouveau, i.e. in like forgetfulness of this life. 5. moitié de ma vie, Julie. 6. par lui, i.e. l'espoir.
Page 48. — 1. Epicurus, a celebrated Greek philosopher, born B.C. 342, was the founder of a school of philosophy which, in the common but not very exact opinion, taught that pleasure constitutes the highest happiness, and must consequently be the end of ail human cxertions. 2. Celui, etc., the modem scientist. 3. Végéter, to vegetate. The poet here speaks sarcastically (which is very rare in his
NOTES
writings) of the modem scientifïc investigator, who makes too much of matter, and places the soul too low. 4. au: see p. i, n. i. 5. devenir, with its subject le temps, is an infinitive, depending upon vois.
Page 49. — 1. verrais: see p. 2, n. 7. 2. Séjour: at Aix en Savoie, on Lake Bourget, in 181 6. 3. à long plis. Tianslate: in long folds. The poet compares the shades of darkness to curtains let down, that hang in folds and conceal the view.
Page 50. — 1. le jour, daylight.
Page 51. — 1. Frappés: the pluperfect subjunctive (here eût frappés) or indicative can stand in the subordinate clauses of unrealized past conditional sentences. 2. Elles refers to les âmes. 3. Elvire, saine as Julie.
l'automne.
The poet himself says of this poem : Ces vers sont cette lutte entre l'instinct de tristesse qui fait accepter la mort et l'instinct de bonheur qui fait regretter la vie. Ils furent écrits en 1819, après les premiers désenchantements de la première adolescence. Mais il font déjà allusion à l'attachement sérieux que le poète avait conçu pour une jeune Anglaise qui fut depuis la compagne de sa vie.
Page 52. — 1. Plaît à : see p. 20, n. 2. 2. D'un pas, ivith thonght* fui pace ; genitive of manner.
Page 53. — 1. Peut-être restait-il: notice the inversion, as usual after peut-être, etc.
