(c) Théophile Gautier (Portraits Contemporains, p. 174) almost seems to derive the word Lakiste from Lamartine’s poem called Le Lac. He has just mentioned the poem and goes on: “Il ne faut pas croire que Lamartine, parce qu’il y a toujours chez lui une vibration et une résonnance de harpe éolienne, ne soit qu’un mélodieux lakiste et ne sache que soupirer mollement la mélancolie et l’amour. S’il a le soupir, il a la parole et le cri …” (Journal Officiel, 8 Mars 1869.)
I now come to the man who, first and foremost among our poets and critics, paid due homage to Wordsworth, i.e. Sainte-Beuve. I have already enumerated his several translations in verse from Wordsworth. Strange to say, the voluminous critic has no single article with Wordsworth for its main subject; but, whoever will go through his many volumes will find many judicious and admiring references to the poet.
Moreover, as a poet, Sainte-Beuve has endeavoured to naturalise in France the poetic style that has been associated with the name of Wordsworth. He expressly claims Wordsworth as one of his masters in his Consolations xviii. “A Antony Deschamps.” Among his bosom-poets he reckons—
…Wordsworth peu connu, qui des lacs solitaires
Sait tòus les bleus reflets, les bruits et les mystères,
Et qui, depuis trente ans vivant au même lieu,
En contemplation devant le même Dieu,
A travers les soupirs de la mousse et de l’onde,
Distingue, au soir, des chants venus d’un meilleur monde.
The original attempt of Sainte-Beuve (for he was original in his very choice of Wordsworth as a model at a time when Byron engrossed all the admiration of the French poets) has been ably characterised by Théophile Gautier in his “Portraits Contemporains” (pp. 208, 209), an article reprinted from La Gazette de Paris, 19 Novembre 1871:—