< previous  next > 

248

p>L'AUTOMNE. November, 1819; from _les Méditations poétiques_.

61. 9. PEUT ÊTRE L'AVENIR, etc.; "allusion à l'attachement sérieux que le poète avait conçu pour une jeune Anglaise qui fut depuis la compagne de sa vie." (Commentaire de l'auteur.) LE SOIR. Spring of 1819; from _les Méditations poétiques_.

63. LE VALLON. Summer of 1819; from _les Méditations poétiques_. "Ce vallon est situé dans les montagnes du Dauphiné." (Commentaire de l'auteur.)

65 9. PYTHAGORE; Pythagoras, a Greek philosopher of the sixth century B.C., who is said to have taught the doctrine that the "organization of the universe is an harmonious system of numerical ratios." L'ISOLEMENT. September, 1818; from

_les Méditations poétiques_. Reyssié in the work above cited gives interesting variants for this poem.

67 LE CRUCIFIX. 1818? From _les Nouvelles Méditations_. "Mon ami M. de V(irieu), qui assistait aux derniers moments de Julie, me rapporta, de sa part, le crucifix qui avait reposé sur ses lèvres dans son agonie ... J'écrivis, après une année de silence et de deuil, cette élégie." (Commentaire de l'auteur.) Compare with this note the eleventh stanza of the poem, which points back to the time of the Graziella affair. See below.

70. ADIEU A GRAZIELLA. From _les Nouvelles Méditations_. Graziella, whose heart Lamartine won during his visit to Naples in the winter of 1811-12 and whom he abandoned, was the daughter of a Neapolitan fisherman. She died soon afterward. Later the poet idealized her and his relation to her and immortalized her memory in his works. Cf. _le Premier regret_ below.

71. LES PRÉLUDES. 1822; from _les Nouvelles Méditations_. This poem, addressed to Victor Hugo, consists of several divisions, in different meters, only the last of which is here given. It inspired the symphonic poem of Liszt by

 < previous  next >