LE GOLFE DE BAÏA

This beautiful poem was written much earlier than the preceding — in the year 181 3 (?) at Naples, as the poet tells us. The power of a real poet is here revealed, although we see that this poetry is cast in the conventional mould of that day. However, there is something more in this poem than merely smooth verses. There is a poetic feeling in it. M. Faguet ranks it among Lamartine's perfect poems. But it differs from the other Méditations in the nature of the feeling. Here we

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see the poet before the great inspiration for Julie changed the nature of his verse.

Page 54. — 1. This bay is a few miles westward from Naples. Upon it is situated a city of the same name, once the most famous bathing place of ancient Italy, where the great of Rome were wont to corne in crowds. The whole coast was then studded with the palaces of Roman nobles. A few remains of thèse ancient ruins can be seen to-day. 2. tu: référence is here to Graziella; see the Biographical Sketch, pp. xi and xix. 3. Thétys: a goddess of the océan, here figurative for océan.

Page 55. — 1. N'osant . . . étoiles, daring not trust to the stars (night).

Page 56. — 1. Césars: this was written in i8i3(?) before the unity of the Italian states into one. Petty princes (Césars) then held sway. 2. Horace (born B.c. 65), a great Roman poet. 3. Propertius (born B.c. 51), a Roman elegiac poet who has celebrated in many verses his Cynthia. 4. Tibullus (born about B.c. 54), a Roman elegiac poet of considérable merit. He addressed the first élégies of his first book to Délia, his "first love." 5. Torquato Tasso (1544-95), an Italian poet, best known to English readers by his Jérusalem Delivered. His life was often clouded by misfortunes and loss of reason. He led a wandering and misérable life until at last glory seemed to beckon him, and he was called to Rome to receive the crown (here la palme) of a great poet. His life seemed ill-fated, — he died the very day before he was crowned. Notice in the text the article [le Tasse] which is sometimes used with names of celebrated poets, painters, orators, etc.

Page 57. — 1. réponde, subjunctive. After gênerai négatives the following relative clause requires its verb to be in the subjunctive. 2. que preceded by pas or point = English prep. save.

NOTES

LE CRUCIFIX (to be pronounced krucifï),

This powerful poem was composed about a year after the deadi of Julie. Lamartine was in reality not présent at her death, but his most intimate friend, the poet in one place tells us, was there, and reported ail faithfully to him, and brought him le crticifix. He, however, has told this story elsewhere differently, evidently with the intention of confusing the reader and concealing from public gaze an épisode of his life that alone belonged to his most holy and inmost recollections. M. Alexandre, his private secretary, assures us that the poet's correspondence with the young lady, which in Raphaël we are told was destroyed, is yet to be found at St. Point (Lamartine's home). One thing is certain, that the young lady known as Julie or El vire had an immense influence over Lamartine's life and poems; and it is this mysterious figure that we find behind ail the poet's great works. There is nothing more certain than the reality of the poet's feeli îg in this poem. There is not the most infinitésimal trace of déclamation here. The poet does not speak as a blustering deelaimer who desires to make a great impression upon others, but as one alone in great grief who seeks relief from his own suffering. He found that solace in Christian faith, and his spirit rises toward the end of the poem beautifully, even grandly, from ils dépression. The wish ex'pressed towards the close of this méditation, as to the manner of his death, was literally fulfilled. His devoted nièce, Mme. Valentine de Lamartine, who sacrificed her life to her uncle before his death, was indeed the ange éploré that realized this désire in a very remarkable way.

Page 61. — 1. Que de = how many. 2. Tes : the feet of the figure Df Christ on the crucifix.

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Page 62. — 1. From early times the cypress has been associated with the idea of death. The tree is used to decorate cemeteries. 2. l'oeil sans regard, the sightless eye.

Page 63. — 1. From here on the poet turns away in thought from the death of Julie to the idea of death in gênerai and to his own death. 2. l'âme, subject of replie.

Page 64. — 1. collé agrées with Divin consolateur (crucifix) in the next stanza. 2. lui refers to le mourant. 3. Tu refers to Divin consolateur (Christ) . 4. l'olivier : the référence is to the scène in the Garden of Gethsemane, on the lower slope of Olivet, where Christ spent the night in prayer in vvhich he was betrayed by Judas into the hands of those who would kill him. 5. De la croix, looking doivn from the cross. 6. Que, to be connected with the optative subjunctive obtienne.

Page 65. — 1. Puisse, may9 governs recueiller, 2. héritage sacré refers to le crucifix.

BONAPARTE

This poem was composed in 1821, a few months after the news of Napoleon's death had reached Fiance. This news made an immense impression at the time, but Lamartine did not share the gênerai enthusiasm. This poem may be said to have anticipated the judgment of posterity upon this great man. It does not deny the power of the man,

— indeed, the grandeur of the great general's power inspires the poet,

— but his judgment is not carried away to apotheosis or the opposite extrême. This méditation is full of sublime thoughts, and is in the main a just reflection.

Page 66. — 1. Ecueil refers to the rocky little island of St. Helena, where, under English guards, Napoléon spent his last days. 2. Tanaïs, the ancient name of the river Don. 3. Cédar, country in Palestine. 4. Les deux grand noms, Alexander and Caesar. 5. Là, there, i.e. this humble tomb upon the enemy's soil.

Page 67. — 1. Ennemi = the English. 2. Memphis, city on the lower Nile. Memnon, a temple near Thebes, vvhich is on the upper Nile. Napoléon struck the world before he had a name, as the great

NOTES

Nile, which, unnamed, beats against the banks of Thebes before it reaches Memphis. 3. Brutus : the French people is likened to Brutus, as it had killed its king in the vain attempt to bring about the triumph of republican principles. 4. Ce siècle, the i8th, the great century of the French Révolution. 5. Les dieux : référence to the attempted abolition of the Christian religion, and the gênerai révolution in social and political ideas. 6. erreur, illusion: the gênerai référence here seems to be to the idea of republicanism, which of course seemed an illusion to the young poet of royalistic principles, and the particular référence to the events of ioth November, 1799 (19 Brumaire), when Napoléon, without knowing exactly whether France was with him or not, sought to overthrow the Directory. 7. Jacob, see Genesis xxxii., 24-29.

Page 68. — 1. Profanateur : Napoléon was no ardent supporter of the principles of the great Révolution. Alone, led by his ambition, he only played with the great ideas of the Révolution to further his own interests. Lamartine, although royalist, held sacred a part of the Révolution. Later he became the éloquent glorifier of it in his Histoire des Girondins. 2. Impuissant : the Révolution had spent its force, and was powerless at the time Napoléon assumed power. 3. la poudre, s??ioke of the battle-field, where Napoléon gained his power. 4. légitimes. Lamartine, a royalist or legitimist at the time he wrote this, naturally thought that the Bourbons ought to have been reinstated. Ten years later his views were materially changed, and in one of his political articles we even find the following: La question de dynastie et de personne n'est rien devant l'avenir, devant l'immense question sociale. 5. Plaçant . . . victimes. In early times, it was the custom for the lords to raise the newly chosen king upon a large pavois, and to bear him thus to the field where the people were assembled in arms to confirm the choice. By the royales victimes the Bourbons are meant. 6. saints bandeaux, worn by the ancient kings.

Page 69. — 1. S'élancer and the following infinitives are the grammatical subjects of fut in the last verse of the next stanza.

Page 70. — 1. qui m'aurait donné d'y sonder ta pensée, 0 ! ij somebody had given me [the power] to fatho7?i thy thought. etc. qui = si quelqu'un.

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Page 71. — 1. Pont refers to the fierce struggle for the possession of the bridge at Arcola, in Italy, November, 1796. 2. du désert, the désert north of Mt. Sinai. 3. Cime refers to the crossing of the Alps over the great St. Bernard in May, 1800. 4. Condé. The royalists had formed a plan to assassinate the first consul, since they could not otherwise overthrow him, and bring about the return of their legitimate monarch. Napoléon was wide awake to their movements, and kept up a great System of spies at home and abroad. He desired to strike terror into the royalists by killing one of their princes. The Duke d'Enghien, the grandson of the old Prince Condé, was living at Etten-. heim, in Baden, very happily with his young wife. The first consul ordered him, contrary to the rights of nations, to be seized, and after a show of a trial, to be shot. He paid little attention to the entreaties of his own wife and friends. In ail things he considered only the end in view, and looked upon ail things as right that would further this end. But at St. Helena he tried to throw ofï the responsibility of this terrible deed by falsehood.

Page 72. — 1. Marius, the préserver of his country; Cœsar, the overthrower of its freedom. 2. moissoneur, mower : an apt figure, when we think of the men and armies he niowed down in Europe, Asia, and Africa. The great gênerai who had disturbed the peace of the old world, is here upon this little isle condemned to inactivity, awaiting his future reward, ainsi qu'un moissoneur va chercher son salaire et dort sur sa faucille avant d'être payé. 3. fus demander : être with the infinitive in the sensé of aller. 4. Rédempteur, here an adjectiye, = redeeming, i.e. the sign of the cross.

Page 73. — 1. touche, sec p. 7, n. 2. 2. Instead of thèse last two verses, the following stood in the first édition : —

Et vous, fléaux de Dieu, qui sait si le génie N'est pas une de vos vertus ?

The poet, conscientiously touched, changed the verses as is found in the text. The poet himself gives as reason for this change : le génie par lui-même n'est rien moins qu'une vertu; ce n'est qu'un don, une faculté, un instrument. ... Le génie mal employé est un crime plus illustre. 3. ne fonde pas des (== de les), etc. : the article is used after a négative when the latter belongs to the verb only. Translate : which does Mot, etc.

NOTES

CHANT D'AMOUR

This poem is a chef-d'œuvre of the highest order, and belongs to Ihe very narrow circle of the choicest ?)iéditations, which includes Le Vallon, ULsolement, Le Lac, Le Soir, Souvenir, La Prière, Le Crucifix, La Sagesse, Le Chant d'Amour, and Lschia. It was written in the midst of the poet's honeymoon, in the summer of 1820, at lschia, an island in the Gulf of Naples that always had an especial charm for Lamartine, and has been immortalized in many of his verses. Of the poem the poet says : Cette méditation fut écrite encore dans l'été de 1820, à lschia. C'est un Cantique des cantiques, mais avec des notes moins pénétrantes et des couleurs moins orientales que le chant nuptial de Salomon. C'est un défi à la poésie, qui n'a jamais su exprimer le bonheur comme elle exprime la douleur, sans doute parce que le bonheur est un secret que Dieu a réservé au ciel; et que l'homme, au contraire, connaît la douleur dans toute son intensité. See also biographical sketch, p. xix-xxii.

This beautiful poem is a little difficult for students, and should be very carefully studied, till ail the beauties stand out clearly.

Fage 74. — 1. Que, object of verb parlent. 2. Se is in dative case. 3. ta refers to the lyre. 4. The préposition à in au here expresses the means. Translate : a soul unfolded by the breath of love. The expanding of the soul is likened to the unfolding of a rose. 5. La refers to âme.

Page 75. — 1. Tandis que = while. 2. Murmurerait is the verb of the principal clause of this long sentence which fills the first four stanzas. 3. Privés du jour. The référence here is to those long imprisoned or shut out from the light for any cause, — not the bîind. 4. Le refers to bras.

Page 76. — 1. Que= how. 2. Deux vagues : the two waves here are waves that first fall upon the beach and then break and retire. The poet compares the rising and the falling of the bosom in this stillness to the rise and fall of the waves on the shore. 3. vient, etc. : the thought is : as she is reclining, the sky of course falls first upon her tye as she looks up, but she seeks not the sky, but only his eyes. 4. De

168 MÉDITATIONS POÉTIQUES

. . . lumière. Translate : concealing with ils wandering cioud the light front thee. 5. vienne, subjunctive after the conjunction jusqu'à ce que. 6. Les larmes du matin = morning mists. 7. L', contracted from la, refers here to aurore.

Page 77. — 1. Tel = thus. The heart easily understands ail the half-expressed and imperfect expressions of mouth and face, as the slightest breath of the zéphyr sweeping over the lyre brings forth an enchanting sound.

Page 78. — 1. les rameaux, the branches, i.e. the eyelashes. 2. rives, banks, i.e. the eyelids. 3. Les perles d'Ophir of course stand for the pearly teeth.

Page 79. — 1. Entourant is a gerund of accompanying circumstances agreeing with une vigne. The student will remember that the gerund cannot change for gender and number. 2. la refers to grotte.

Page 80. — 1. vos refers to violettes. 2. Philomèle, the nightingale. See p. 128, n. I.

Page 81. — 1. bouton, bud. 2. des tiges, genitive, depending upon débris. 3. Mort. The thought naturally changes in this stanza, when he begins to talk of the faded lily, the stripped stems, and the destroyed curl. In his thought he sees that ail, even she, must pass away.

Page 82. — 1. de ces jours, genitive depending upon la rigueur. 2. t' is here dative, from thee. 3. ton doux souvenir . . . clarté,

there thy sweet memory shall bum brightly [veille] under the protection of my fidelity, as a golden lamp whose trembling fiante a holy virgin protects, etc.

Page 83. — 1. quand . . . suivie, when death shall corne, followeâ by another love, i.e. the love that continues after death,

ISCHIA

This beautiful poem was at least begun in 1820, upon the island of Ischia, situated at the entrance to the Gulf of Naples. The poet, wearied of his work in the diplomatie corps at Naples, went with his newly martied wife to spend several months upon this beautiful island. The tone

NOTES

of this poem is found only in several other poems, — Chant d'Amour, Les Préludes, and La Sagesse, ail of which were written at this period of his development. They were the echo of thèse happy days of his early married life. He writes to a friend, in a letter of this date : Le bonheur, quoi qu'on en dise, est poétique, quand il est bien entendu.

Page 84. — 1. désert, deserted [by the sun]. 2. Phébé, Phoebe, the goddess of the moon. 3. Calme, here a verb. 4. ses, his, referring to Océan.

Page 85. — 1. Du flot limits contour. 2. son, ils, referring to la nuit. 3. l'amante qui s'incline, the beloved one bending over {i.e. in anxious expectation).

Page 86. — 1. à peine . . . pêcheur : in the distance the sait which was out of sight is just appearing. 2. qui . . . airs, which grows dim in the distance. 3. elle refers to ta barque. 4. l'étoile des mers, north star.

Page 87. — 1. Misene : the promontory of Miseno, east from Ischia, upon the mainland. The poet probably finished this poem elsewhere, for he does not speak from the standpoint of Ischia. From the standpoint of Ischia, the moon cannot glide towards Miseno. In a letter written at Mâcon, in February, 1822, the poet sends this part of the poem, the song of the maiden, to his friend Aymon de Virieu. He was accustomed to send to this friend the poems that were occupying his mind, and hence it may have been written at that time. It seems to be written, however, as if the poet was, at least in thought, at Naples, for this alone explains the gliding of the moon towards Miseno. 2. le coeur with heart, etc. 3. Sentirait : this stanza and each one of the three following contains a conditional that together form the subordinate clauses to this long sentence, the principal verb of which is serait farther on. 4. des soupirs: sighs because language was inadéquate. 5. serait-il: il refers to celui qui of the three preceding stanzas.

Page 88. — 1. Éden, to be pronounced Éden (nasal), to rhyme with élyséen. 2. l'astre élyséen, the moon. 3. Élise refers to his wife. Jocelyn is dedicated to Maria-Anna-Éliza, but in his letters he usually calls her Marianne.

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LES PRÉLUDES

This poem was composed in 1822, and resembles in tone Chani f Amour, Ischia, and La Sagesse, which together form a distinct circle, 1 ifferent from anything else of the poet's muse. After the poet's happy ) îarriage in 1820, he passed out of his melancholy moods into the happy state of feeling expressed by thèse four poems. Nothing was truer for Lamartine than an expression of his to a friend : la vie est un horizon qui se développe à chaque pas qu'on y fait. Thèse four poems mark a new step in his life, and reflect perfectly the happy year of domestic life from 1820- 1822. It is évident that Les Préludes represent a later stage of this period than the others. See also introductions to the poems La Sagesse and Ischia.

Page 89. — 1. Embrasée, bur7ting. 2. cheveux : the shades of night are here called its tresses. 3. Exprimant, pressing out the dew, etc. The verb is here used in the literal sensé. 4. lui refers to âme. 5. entendais : " the imperfect sometimes contrasts what used to be with what is." — Syn. Translate : I used to hear, etc. 6. Il refers to esprit capricieux.

Page 90. — 1. In the fqllowing poems, differing so widely in character and verse, the inspirations of the esprit capricieux, we must bear in mind that in reality it is the poet himself in his différent moods who is speaking, although in name it is the lyre or esprit capricieux. 2. The poet is here addressing his bien-aimée, for which see p. 91, n. 2. 3. livre and enivre (two verses farther on) for livres and enivres : rather bold use of poetical license. 4. sur, pressed upon. 5. la jeune Aurore : Aurore is young, since as a goddess she possesses eternal youth. The poet here, however, thinks of the brightness of the morning itself rather than the mythical goddess of the morn. 6. ton âme . . . éclore, thy sou/ has just opened to happiness. 7. de, 071 account of.

Page 91. — 1. pliant: see p. 79, n. 1. 2. bien-aimée refers to his wife.

Page 93. — 1. L'amour . . . génie : the poet here means that love can only be felt, and hence literary genius cannot describe it, tlthough it can describe anything else. 2. D'effroi, de volupté, with

NOTES

fright, etc. 3. se reprendrait, from se reprendre à, to become attachée! to. In the midst of thèse horrors the soul would learn to count its own daily sufferings as blessings, and become attached to life again.

4. repasser: this infinitive and the infinitives in the following thirteen verses are ail resumed by the one indefinite tel further on.

Page 94. — 1. tel: see preceding note. 2. que, how. 3. gémir: see p. 8, n. i. 4. vienne, subjunctive after impersonal verb.

Page 95. — 1. délivre, optative subjunctive. 2. Oublions, imperative, let us forget. 3. This battle scène is inferior to the other parts of the poem. The poet speaks here from imagination alone. Lamartine reflects naturally the tones of the vibrating heart, as a mountain throvs back an echo; he often, however, becomes very unlike himself when he abandons the field of his own émotions. The beautiful rural scène that follows, the reflection of his own life at Milly, is perhaps ail the more beautiful by way of contrast. 4. au devant with verb to go or other verbs of motion is translated by to go (etc.) to meet.

Page 96. — 1. eux-même, poetic license for eux-mêmes, for sake of mètre. 2. bronzes, poetic word, see list, p. 145, vii. 3. jaillit: the light flashes (reflected) from his bright helmet. 4. servit de, to serve as ; the bright helmet serves as a mark to death.

Fa&e 97. — 1. Entier, without loss of limbs. 2. Les deux camps . . . tourbillons, the tzuo armies inspired by the same va/or dash at each other, meet, and from the shock, broke?î, mingle in bloody eddies their surging batta/ions. 3. D'une, etc. : the closed ranks protect themselves by an arch of steel, i.e. swords and bayonets, etc. 4. Un seul, the distinct flash of each army's fire cannot longer be distinguished.