To Byron also, and to him alone (Ossian being excepted) among the poets of England, was Lamartine indebted. I am not sure that he names Wordsworth once; but still the striking analogy between the ideas and imaginative style of both cannot fail to be noticed by the reader. Without insisting on a parallel that might be drawn between many pages of The Excursion and of Jocelyn, I will only point out two short pieces of Lamartine that bear strong resemblance to two poems of Wordsworth, so much so that they almost read like free imitations—
| Lamartine | Wordsworth’s |
|---|---|
| “A Augusta,” Recueillements Poètiques, xx. | Nightingale and Stock-dove. |
| “Le Fontaine du Foyard,” Nouvelles Confidences. | The Fountain. |
Victor Hugo, so far as I know, only names Wordsworth once, in L’Âne—
…Young le pleureur des nuits,
Wordsworth l’esprit des lacs …
M. Sully Prudhomme when he wrote A l’Hirondelle (stanzas, la vie intérieure) appears to have borne in mind To a Skylark, “Ethereal minstrel,” etc.
M. Coppée has often been called a French Wordsworth, owing to his poetical collection called Les Humbles, wherein he shows the same partiality as the English Poet does for humble themes and characters, together with a bold attempt to naturalise trivial or ludicrous details in serious poetry; but there is no proof, as far as I know, of Wordsworth’s influence having been strong upon him.
If we except two or three disciples of Wordsworth, neither he, nor the lake-poets taken as a whole, seem to have been much thought of, or even read, by our contemporary verse-writers. The word Lakist has generally been used as a synonym for “weak and doleful mysticism.” Ex.:—
(a) Revue Encyclopédique. 1831. Article de Pierre Leroux, sur la “Poésie de notre Époque.” “L’Angleterre a entendu autour de ses lacs bourdonner comme des ombres plaintives un essaim de poètes abîmés dans une mystique contemplation.”
(b) Journal d’un Poète, par Alfred de Vigny. (Ed. Michel Lévy. 1867. p. 80.) “Barbier vient de publier Il Pianto. Les délices de Capone ont amolli son caractère de poésie et Brizeux a déteint sur lui ses douces couleurs virgiliennes et laquistes (sic) dérivant de Sainte-Beuve.”