French poetry 101 – André Chénier
Apr. 14th, 2007 06:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
foudebassanThe eighteenth century didn’t overflow with poets. It is the age of reason, of philosophy, of science, of discreet and flirtatious mots d’esprits in ladies’ salon at the detour of a complicated argument, but not of passionate verse.
André Chénier (1762-1794) was born in Istanbul to a French diplomat and his Greek wife. She is intelligent, and cultivated; when her husband goes to Africa, she decides to stay in Paris with her children, where they will be able to get the best education she can provide.
The eldest son will follow his father’s footsteps, but André is expected to take up a military career (like his contemporary Choderlos de Laclos) after the end of his studies. He hates casern life, falls ill, and takes that as a convenient excuse to give it all up and go back to live with his mother. Their closeness probably explains why he was to nurture a lifelong fascination for Greece. With a few friends, he decides to go there; they arrive to Italy, but he falls ill again as has to go back to France before finding a short-term job in London.
When he comes back, the revolution is starting. Chénier is passionate about it, and writes in various journals. He wants change, yes, but remains a monarchist and opposes the King’s execution; he then writes for the Girondins (moderate party).
It doesn’t go down well with the newly installed Terreur. He is arrested in early 1794, knowing fully well how revolutionary trials end. It is in prison, with the certainty of dying soon, that he writes some of his most vibrant poems, including La Jeune Captive. It is an irony of fate that he should have been executed only two days before the fall of Robespierre, an event that would probably have set him free.
Legend says that his last words, when being led to the Guillotine, were “But I did have something in there”, pointing to his head.
No soundtrack today, but a picture:
La Jeune Tarentine
Pleurez, doux alcyons, ô vous, oiseaux sacrés,
Oiseaux chers à Thétis, doux alcyons, pleurez.
Elle a vécu, Myrto, la jeune Tarentine.
Un vaisseau la portait aux bords de Camarine.
Là l'hymen, les chansons, les flûtes, lentement,
Devaient la reconduire au seuil de son amant.
Une clef vigilante a pour cette journée
Dans le cèdre enfermé sa robe d'hyménée
Et l'or dont au festin ses bras seraient parés
Et pour ses blonds cheveux les parfums préparés.
Mais, seule sur la proue, invoquant les étoiles,
Le vent impétueux qui soufflait dans les voiles
L'enveloppe. Étonnée, et loin des matelots,
Elle crie, elle tombe, elle est au sein des flots.
Elle est au sein des flots, la jeune Tarentine.
Son beau corps a roulé sous la vague marine.
Thétis, les yeux en pleurs, dans le creux d'un rocher
Aux monstres dévorants eut soin de la cacher.
Par ses ordres bientôt les belles Néréides
L'élèvent au-dessus des demeures humides,
Le portent au rivage, et dans ce monument
L'ont, au cap du Zéphyr, déposé mollement.
Puis de loin à grands cris appelant leurs compagnes,
Et les Nymphes des bois, des sources, des montagnes,
Toutes frappant leur sein et traînant un long deuil,
Répétèrent : « hélas ! » autour de son cercueil.
Hélas ! chez ton amant tu n'es point ramenée.
Tu n'as point revêtu ta robe d'hyménée.
L'or autour de tes bras n'a point serré de nœuds.
Les doux parfums n'ont point coulé sur tes cheveux.
(Weep, sweet halcyons, o you, sacred birds,
Birds loved by Thetis, sweet halcyons, weep.
She lived, Myrto, the young Tarentine.
A ship was carrying her to the shores of Camarine.
There marriage, songs, flutes, slowly
Should have brought her back to her lover's doorstep.
A vigilant key had for this day
Locked in cedar the wedding dress
With the gold to adorn her arms during the feast
And with the perfumes prepared for her blond hair.
But, alone on the bow, invoking the stars,
The impetuous wind that blew in the sails
Envelopes her. Surprised, and far from the sailors,
She cries, she falls, she disappears in the waves.
She disappears in the waves, the young Tarentine.
Her beautiful body has rolled under the sea's tide.
Thetis, wet-eyed, took the care to hide her
From the devouring monsters, in the hollow of a rock.
Under her orders, soon, the beautiful Nereids
Carry her above the moist sojourns,
Bring her to the shore, and in this monument
By the Zephyr cape, lay her softly.
Then, from afar, calling their companions,
Nymphs from the woods, the rivers and the mountains,
They all hit their chests and trail a long mourning,
Repeating: "alas!" around her coffin.
Alas! To your lover you have not been brought back.
You have not worn the wedding dress.
Gold did not tie knots around your arms.
The sweet perfumes did not flow on your hair.)
The Hellenic influences are palpable throughout the poem:
• in the mythological / historical allusions
o Tarente is an Italian city
o Halcyons are mythical birds. The halcyon season is a period during which the sea is calm.
o Thetis is the eldest of the Nereids (Nere’s daughters, sea nymphs)
o Camarine is in Sicily
o The ancient Greek wedding ceremony includes the singing of epithalames, with a flute accompaniment.
o The Zephyr cape: south of Locres
• in the structure of the poem. It is a chiasm (a symmetric poem, the beginning is repeated in the ending). It can be analysed as:
o the two first verses, a chiasm on its own, that sum the entire poem up
o the description of her future wedding
o her death
o the mourning
o the wedding she will not be able to take part in
⇨ the poem is rolled up on itself, and the conclusion of the story is announced in the beginning, in pure ancient fashion
• in the allusions to antique poets (1)
o in the first line, Bion of Smyrna
o “Birds loved by Thetis” => Virgil, Georgiques
o “her lover’s threshold” => Lucrèce
o “the cedar” => Euripid
o The death of young maiden before her wedding theme is by Xenocrite of Rhodes
o “alone on the bow” => Virgil, Eneid
o the repetition of “she disappears in the waves” => Bion of Smyrna
o a benevolent Thetis is by Properce
But it remains are very modern work:
• Despite the Hellenisms, the language he uses is definitely 18th century.
o Epanalepses (repetition of the same groups of words at various points of the poem (the dress, the gold, the perfumes,…)
o Synecdoques (using a word with a limited meaning – cedar – meaning something larger – the chest the dress is kept in) come again and again.
o The versification. These are classic alexandrines (12 syllables, rupture at the 6th), and the rimes are followed (aa, bb, cc, etc).
• the themes used are typical of his time
o doesn’t a solitary figure standing at the bow, facing the winds, remind you of something?
o The maiden quality of young Myrto (the “vigilant key” that keeps her wedding dress stands for virginity) is reminiscent of posterior, Victorian heroines.
o Posterior poets will be inspired by similar themes… Premature death, caused by a hostile environment, will become prevalent among the Romantics (think Keats, Lamartine, Vigny, Brentano…)
(1) I’m cheating here, I have an edition with lots of notes
Tomorrow we’re entering the 19th century with a special “romantics aren’t romantic” edition.
André Chénier (1762-1794) was born in Istanbul to a French diplomat and his Greek wife. She is intelligent, and cultivated; when her husband goes to Africa, she decides to stay in Paris with her children, where they will be able to get the best education she can provide.
The eldest son will follow his father’s footsteps, but André is expected to take up a military career (like his contemporary Choderlos de Laclos) after the end of his studies. He hates casern life, falls ill, and takes that as a convenient excuse to give it all up and go back to live with his mother. Their closeness probably explains why he was to nurture a lifelong fascination for Greece. With a few friends, he decides to go there; they arrive to Italy, but he falls ill again as has to go back to France before finding a short-term job in London.
When he comes back, the revolution is starting. Chénier is passionate about it, and writes in various journals. He wants change, yes, but remains a monarchist and opposes the King’s execution; he then writes for the Girondins (moderate party).
It doesn’t go down well with the newly installed Terreur. He is arrested in early 1794, knowing fully well how revolutionary trials end. It is in prison, with the certainty of dying soon, that he writes some of his most vibrant poems, including La Jeune Captive. It is an irony of fate that he should have been executed only two days before the fall of Robespierre, an event that would probably have set him free.
Legend says that his last words, when being led to the Guillotine, were “But I did have something in there”, pointing to his head.
No soundtrack today, but a picture:
Pleurez, doux alcyons, ô vous, oiseaux sacrés,
Oiseaux chers à Thétis, doux alcyons, pleurez.
Elle a vécu, Myrto, la jeune Tarentine.
Un vaisseau la portait aux bords de Camarine.
Là l'hymen, les chansons, les flûtes, lentement,
Devaient la reconduire au seuil de son amant.
Une clef vigilante a pour cette journée
Dans le cèdre enfermé sa robe d'hyménée
Et l'or dont au festin ses bras seraient parés
Et pour ses blonds cheveux les parfums préparés.
Mais, seule sur la proue, invoquant les étoiles,
Le vent impétueux qui soufflait dans les voiles
L'enveloppe. Étonnée, et loin des matelots,
Elle crie, elle tombe, elle est au sein des flots.
Elle est au sein des flots, la jeune Tarentine.
Son beau corps a roulé sous la vague marine.
Thétis, les yeux en pleurs, dans le creux d'un rocher
Aux monstres dévorants eut soin de la cacher.
Par ses ordres bientôt les belles Néréides
L'élèvent au-dessus des demeures humides,
Le portent au rivage, et dans ce monument
L'ont, au cap du Zéphyr, déposé mollement.
Puis de loin à grands cris appelant leurs compagnes,
Et les Nymphes des bois, des sources, des montagnes,
Toutes frappant leur sein et traînant un long deuil,
Répétèrent : « hélas ! » autour de son cercueil.
Hélas ! chez ton amant tu n'es point ramenée.
Tu n'as point revêtu ta robe d'hyménée.
L'or autour de tes bras n'a point serré de nœuds.
Les doux parfums n'ont point coulé sur tes cheveux.
(Weep, sweet halcyons, o you, sacred birds,
Birds loved by Thetis, sweet halcyons, weep.
She lived, Myrto, the young Tarentine.
A ship was carrying her to the shores of Camarine.
There marriage, songs, flutes, slowly
Should have brought her back to her lover's doorstep.
A vigilant key had for this day
Locked in cedar the wedding dress
With the gold to adorn her arms during the feast
And with the perfumes prepared for her blond hair.
But, alone on the bow, invoking the stars,
The impetuous wind that blew in the sails
Envelopes her. Surprised, and far from the sailors,
She cries, she falls, she disappears in the waves.
She disappears in the waves, the young Tarentine.
Her beautiful body has rolled under the sea's tide.
Thetis, wet-eyed, took the care to hide her
From the devouring monsters, in the hollow of a rock.
Under her orders, soon, the beautiful Nereids
Carry her above the moist sojourns,
Bring her to the shore, and in this monument
By the Zephyr cape, lay her softly.
Then, from afar, calling their companions,
Nymphs from the woods, the rivers and the mountains,
They all hit their chests and trail a long mourning,
Repeating: "alas!" around her coffin.
Alas! To your lover you have not been brought back.
You have not worn the wedding dress.
Gold did not tie knots around your arms.
The sweet perfumes did not flow on your hair.)
The Hellenic influences are palpable throughout the poem:
• in the mythological / historical allusions
o Tarente is an Italian city
o Halcyons are mythical birds. The halcyon season is a period during which the sea is calm.
o Thetis is the eldest of the Nereids (Nere’s daughters, sea nymphs)
o Camarine is in Sicily
o The ancient Greek wedding ceremony includes the singing of epithalames, with a flute accompaniment.
o The Zephyr cape: south of Locres
• in the structure of the poem. It is a chiasm (a symmetric poem, the beginning is repeated in the ending). It can be analysed as:
o the two first verses, a chiasm on its own, that sum the entire poem up
o the description of her future wedding
o her death
o the mourning
o the wedding she will not be able to take part in
⇨ the poem is rolled up on itself, and the conclusion of the story is announced in the beginning, in pure ancient fashion
• in the allusions to antique poets (1)
o in the first line, Bion of Smyrna
o “Birds loved by Thetis” => Virgil, Georgiques
o “her lover’s threshold” => Lucrèce
o “the cedar” => Euripid
o The death of young maiden before her wedding theme is by Xenocrite of Rhodes
o “alone on the bow” => Virgil, Eneid
o the repetition of “she disappears in the waves” => Bion of Smyrna
o a benevolent Thetis is by Properce
But it remains are very modern work:
• Despite the Hellenisms, the language he uses is definitely 18th century.
o Epanalepses (repetition of the same groups of words at various points of the poem (the dress, the gold, the perfumes,…)
o Synecdoques (using a word with a limited meaning – cedar – meaning something larger – the chest the dress is kept in) come again and again.
o The versification. These are classic alexandrines (12 syllables, rupture at the 6th), and the rimes are followed (aa, bb, cc, etc).
• the themes used are typical of his time
o doesn’t a solitary figure standing at the bow, facing the winds, remind you of something?
o The maiden quality of young Myrto (the “vigilant key” that keeps her wedding dress stands for virginity) is reminiscent of posterior, Victorian heroines.
o Posterior poets will be inspired by similar themes… Premature death, caused by a hostile environment, will become prevalent among the Romantics (think Keats, Lamartine, Vigny, Brentano…)
(1) I’m cheating here, I have an edition with lots of notes
Tomorrow we’re entering the 19th century with a special “romantics aren’t romantic” edition.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-04-14 10:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-15 12:22 pm (UTC)But there is always time.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-15 02:57 pm (UTC)True. I seem to have some 20 years headstart on you :-)