193. A UN GRAND ARBRE. 1840; from Odes et Poèmes. 5. CYBÈLE, or Rhea, goddess of the earth. LE DROIT D'AÎNESSE. 1875; from le Livre d'un père. 15. ÉCHERRA, from échoir.
MME. ACKERMANN.
1813-1890.
Louise-Victorine Choquet, who became Mme. Paul Ackermann by her marriage in 1844 and was left a widow
in 1846, lived a life of great retirement and seclusion. Her work, the fruit of long solitude, bears the impress of a strong, reflective mind. It is deeply linged with pessimism.
Works: Contes et poésies, 1863; Poésies philosophiques, 1874; collected in one volume, Poésies, 1877.
For reference: Comte d'Haussonville, Mme. Ackermann, d'après des lettres et des papiers inédits, 1891.
CHARLES-MARIE LECONTE DE LISLE.
1818-1894.
Born on the island of Bourbon, the tropical landscape that was familiar to his boyhood recurs constantly in his poems. Coming to France to complete his studies and to reside, he became the master spirit among the poets of the middle of the century and the recognized leader of the Parnassiens. From the beginning he protested vigorously against the Romanticists of 1830, not only as making an immodest and on the whole vulgar display of self (cf. les Montreurs, p. 199), but also as inevitably falling short of artistic perfection because, being possessed, or at least moved, by the emotion they were expressing, they could not be wholly masters of the instrument of expression. To be thus wholly master of the resources of poetic art one must be quite untroubled by one's own personal joys and sorrows, have the brain clear and free. This call to the poet to rid himself of the personal element was emphasized by the reflection that individual emotions are of little importance or interest, being dwarfed by the collective life of humanity in general, which in turn is overshadowed by the vast phenomenon of life as a whole, while this again is but a transient vapor on the face of the immense universe. So the poetic creed of an impersonal and impassive art was more or less blended with a materialism pervaded with a buddhistic pessimism that is vexed and wearied with the vain motions of this human world, and longs for the rest of Nirvana; and this vexation and weariness frequently rise to a poignant intensity. However far he may then be thought to be from the impassive impersonality of his doctrine, there is but one opinion as to his rare command of form and the exquisite perfection of his art, which have won for him the epithet impeccable.