Char, the earth. He seems to leave earth and its cares
Page 111. — 1. s'enfuit, fiées as the sun rises. 2. Il: see p. 110, n. 2. 3. Tournoyer: from thèse dizzy heights ail réels before him.
4. Des mondes, genitive limiting le mystère. 5. s'abaisse, is revealed.
Page 112. — 1. au loin: the clouds hanging far and wide around the peak are likened to its tresses. 2. dire, infinitive depending upon semble. 3. Océan: the clouds that spread out beneath him and
174 MÉDITATIONS POÉTIQUES
cover the whole face of the sky, are compared to the océan. 4. yt here ; i.e. upon the peak. 5. Que = tandis que. Translate: And
already the dark night has descended from the skies, while to thèse sum~ mits he (cet astre i.e. the sun) is yet bidding a long farewell. That is, the sun tarries long upon the mountain top after it is elsewhere dark.
Page 113. — 1. Ainsi, etc. Freely, thus: the purer the elemejil is, the less of the common man there survives in us. Notice the apparently redundant et in the text. This et is used to dénote that the statement in its clause is the conséquence of the preceding. 2. Mais ton . . . regards. Free : Thy image, O God, within us, as it rises towards Thee in thèse grand manifestations of Thee around us, becomes perceptibly (à nos regards) larger. 3. Lui refers to l'âme solitaire. 4. From this verse on, the poet turns away from the mountains to other scènes in nature, and aptly concludes the poem with the words : Et toute la nature est un hymne à ta gloire.
Page 114. — 1. où, upon which ; its antécédent is monts. 2. d'où, from which ; its antécédent is trésors des hivers, the accumulated snows of winter. 3. rochers de cristal, ice melting and flowing down into the fields.
LE PASSÉ
This poem, according to the poet's statement, was written in 1824, but we know that a part at least was written earlier. The méditation was addressed to Aymon de Virieu, the poet's dearest friend. With him the poet was accustomed to share ail his joys and sorrows. This friendship dated from their school days at Belley, and lasted till the death of the friend. Their letters show us this friendship in ail its intensîty and reality. The poet here speaks with one who is acquainted with ail the inmost history of his life, and hence a number of the allusions in the poem are not entirely clear even to the reader who has made a careful study of his life. It is this artless tone of intimacy that renders the poem so real. There are very few, who in certain moments of their life, have not in their expérience had an unwritten poem simi-
NOTES
far to Le Passé. The poem is pervaded with a melancholy that may appear when we return to the past.
Page 115. — 1. matin, morning. The time indicated seems to be the time when the sun has spent its greatest force and is declining. 2. journée, day^s work.
Page 116. — 1. il, grammatical subject of reste; the logical subject is l'espérance et l'amitié. 2. Ami, Aymon de Virieu : see introduction to this poem. 3. le berceau : a poeticai exaggeration. 4. tombeau : the poet has expressed this wish also in a letter to his friend.
Page 117. — 1. After simple interrogative comparative sentences the ne is omitted. 2. En vain : because their hopes were so high, their young lives so strong and fresh, that they, like the ancients, were not moved at the idea of death, and looked upon the cypress as a useless ornament of the way. This faint impression made by death upon a young man full of life is very realistic. 3. cyprès: see p. 62, n. 1. 4. Hélas : they then dreamed about the glorious days without number between the past (hier)» and the future (demain); but now, tired of life, the thought that thèse days were without number provoked an a/as/ 5. Nisida: a little island in the Gulf of Naples. The poet here alludes to the happy year (181 1) when they were at Naples together.
Page 118. — 1. les dédales, /abyrinths. 2. souvenir glacé,
divi recoUection. 3. l'astre adouci des ombres, suit tempered by (de) the c/ouds.
Page 119. — 1. sur la scène du monde modifies se leva. 2. ton:
the poet here and elsewhere in this poem seems to be addressing himself instead of his friend. 3. premier soleil refers probably to the young lady celebrated in Les Confidences as Lucy. See Biographical Sketch, p. x. The poet here and in the following two stanzas reviews in order his three amours. 4. rivage, shore : the référence seems to be to Naples. 5. nom chéri, Graziella. See Sketch, p. xi. 6. fleuve, literally stream : the référence seems to be to Lake Bourget. See Sketch, p. xii. 7. palais, l'abbaye de Haute-Combe: upon the shore of Lake Bourget, where, according to the poet's state* ment in Raphaël, he became enamored of Julie.
176 MÉDITATIONS POÉTIQUES
Page 120. — 1. un ange : référence is to Julie. 2. ailes d'azur, loaring wings. 3. des = de les, from the.
Page 121. — 1. qui has for antécédent vœux and projets. See p. 39, n. 2. 2. l'heure, time.
Page 123. — 1. Ce roi, David. 2. Carmel, mount in Palestine.
LE POÈTE MOURANT
This splendid poem vvas written in 1825. The poet suffered much in his early life from bad health, and we often find allusions to his sickness in his letters. This poem was written in a state of melancholy, produced b j the impression that he was not to live much longer. Under the influence of this passing but gloomy mood, a large horizon opened up to the poet, and this poem, full of Christian reflections, arose. We must remember his thoroughly religious nature.
Page 124. — 1. l'airain = cloche. 2. cygne : antiquity attributed a melodious song to the swan that was about to die. 3. soit, optative subjunctive.
Page 125. — 1. Qu'est-ce . . . pleure, what, therefore, are a few days worth) that we should bewail the m ? 2. qu'il pleure, let him weep. 3. celui, here used to explain more fully il, is the subject of voit. 4. m'en vais, from s'en aller (= mourir), to die.
Page 126. — 1. harpe éolienne, an instrument whose cords the wind causes to vibrate.
Page 127. — 1. lui refers to la gloire. 2. l'ont: le refers to accord. The poet brings forth a sound upon his lyre and then allows it to die away, and compares famé with this short-lived accord. 3. nom refers to gloire. 4. qu'il s'abime ou surnage, concessive subjunctive, whether it sinks or swims.
Page 128. — 1. Philomèle, English, Philomela, daughter of King Pandion, in Attica, being dishonored by her brother-in-law Tereus, was metamorphosed into a nightingale. 2. sentir : this infinitive and those in this and the two following stanzas are referred to by voilà in the last verse of the third stanza from this. 3. manquer, infinitive, de« pending upon voir.
NOTES
Page 129. — 1. leur refers to soupir, un regret. 2. oiseau qui voit dans les ombres, the owl. 3. Le pied sur une tombe, adver bial expression, modifying tient, with the feet beside a tomb.
Page 130. — 1. passe, optative subjunctive.
LA SAGESSE
The poet in his annotations, written many years after the poems themselves, tells us that this beautiful méditation was composed in 1826, at Florence. However, he is so careless in his dates that we are never quite sure of his statements when he gives us figures. There is nothing in his letters, as is usually the case, to assure us of this date. Judging by the tone of the poem, it seems to belong to the period of Chant d'Amour, Les Préludes, and Ischia. The tone of thèse poems is remarkably peculiar to this period of his development, and finds its parallel only in the letters of the same period. This poem, La Sagesse, can be reconstructed from the poet's letters of 1820 and 1821. Every thought in the poem can be found in thèse letters, and in some cases almost the identical expression. The poet passed after 1822 forever out of this peculiar mood, and the poems and the letters that for two years (1820-22) had borne this peculiar stamp, changed, and hence it seems strange to find the poem assigned to 1826.
After the poet's marriage, in 1820, a great change came over him. He became truly happy; and every letter is full of the new life that had corne to him. He forgot the world and soaring thought, that had so often before carried him into lonely places to meditate. His whole thought was entirely occupied in the little circle of domestic life. Such a magnetic, restless force could not long remain there; but so long as this life lasted, his enjoyment of it was complète, and he was almost unconscious of the great questions that stir up human thought and that soon were to bring him before the nation. The following sentence from one of his letters of this period, containing a description of his pleasant sojourn at Ischia, will increase the understanding of the poem: De là (a favorite spot upon the island) fcous entendons de loin en loin par la voix des gazettes le bruit des
MÉDITATIONS POÉTIQUES
révolutions et contre-révolutions qui amusent l'espèce humaine et in* terrompent un peu la monotonie de sa pauvre existence. In another letter of this period : Je dis comme Salomon : tout est vain excepté de vivre avec sa femme et d'aimer ses amis. Again : Dis moi . . . S'il est vers la sagesse une autre route à suivre, Et si l'art d'être heureux n'est par tout l'art de vivre ! This poem is a perfect expression of this period of the poet's life.
Page 131. — 1. Solime: poetic word for Jérusalem. 2. Thabor: mountain in the Holy Land. 3. Sion : mount upon which Jérusalem stands, vieillard de Ségor: the référence is probably to Solomon. The poet here means that what follows is to be an imitation of Solomon's tone as found in Ecclesiastes. This book is generally supposed to have been written by Solomon in his old âge.
Page 132. — 1. Sarons, usual form is Sçaron ; English, Sharon. The words of Solomon's Song, " I am the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valleys," are here in the poet's mind. 2. choisissez : the happily married poet, in his letter to his intimate friend urges him thus: Cherche donc et marie-toi. . . . Choisis et sois choisi.
Page 133. — 1. Le jour . . . nés: the thought of thèse verses is explained by a passage in one of the poet's letters. He means that it is better to enjoy our short life here below, than by ruining it, to insure our future renown through centuries. 2. ombres légères, shadowy forms. 3. l'aurore : note the contrast between ombres, used above, and aurore, the différence between life here below and above.
