Recommend me a good anthology of French poetry in the original language. I have Norton's anthology of English poetry and I found it to be very useful, so I'm looking for an equivalent French poetry anthology.
French Poetry Anthologies
Recommend me a good anthology of French poetry in the original language. I have Norton's anthology of English poetry and I found it to be very useful, so I'm looking for an equivalent French poetry anthology.
Bump. Also, that's a nice Louis Wain pic you have there
Quite fond of that fella's weird little paintings.
Thank you, but I'm looking for anthologies in the original language. I can read French, but I'm not sure which anthology to get.
Baudelaire
Classic.
This is one of the anthologies I was looking at. It seemed fairly comprehensive, and I understand that it's organized chronologically, which is something I like about the Norton anthology I mentioned. Do you have any opinion on Gide's anthology?
Gide was a bit of a snob, so you might find poetry on the more obscure side (both forgotten/minor poets and hermetic poems). Also, La Pleiade is not cheap, and there are few annotations for what is supposed to be a critical anthology.
Go with Pompidou for a start. It's cheap, it's heavy, it's got a little bit of everything, and Pompidou doesn't seek attention or prise, he just wants you to enjoy some poems.
I have the same one. I would definitely recommend it. Pretty comprehensive, a good variety, and great selection.
There's also the Anthologie de la poésie française edited by André Gide (Pléiade)
Is this good?
Yes, it's hard to go wrong with a proper Pleiade (the Gide one is a bit special, considering he was a powerful figure at Gallimard and could edit his little passion project pretty much how he wanted to). You'll get the whole tour of french poetry, with the secondary litterature directly following the poems (La Pleiade books have two bookmarks attached to the edge, one for the poem/novel/play/whatever, and one for the notes).
If you want to invest in something good, buy this one. However, maybe buy only the second one to start. The first one deals with poetry predating modern French, and would be considered difficult by most natives.
Do they come with footnotes for the archaic language?
Never mind I will get the pompidou edition
They do BUT (and I would not say all that if this anthology didn't cost 140 € while the Pompidou is at 7) the footnotes in La Pleiade tend to do some of the work (traducing archaic vocabulary, reminding the changes of meaning in certain words, giving context, linking poems to other works that might have been an inspiration), and leave the rest to the reader. If we're talking 16th and 17th century literature, "the rest" means knowing about archaic syntax and spelling, which can be really different from modern French. If we're talking about the Middle Ages... It starts to get complicated. It's not about archaism anymore, it's about another language. Two other languages, to be exact, as there is a difference between "langue d'oil" (in which the "trouvères", in the North, wrote) and "langue d'oc" (in the South of France, where the "troubadours" lived).
These old kinds of French are all more or less understandable for French people now (not the Middle Age ones, though), but it tends to get really difficult when we talk about poetry. Not to say it's impossible to understand, or to enjoy : poetry from the 16th century especially can get really experimental and weird and erotic and wild. Buuuuuut you might find it difficult. Or not. It's just so you know before you buy one of these.
Alright thanks anon, you've really drilled home how pointless it'd be to buy the 1st volume
Do you think any of the Medieval poetry would be worth reading in modern French translation?
15th century is where it starts to get really interesting : poetry stops being some old epics and Bible stuff that people pass on to the next generation orally, and it starts to get written. From there on, it gets more accessible, and the modern French translations don't take away from the original texts, as it's more a modernisation of the spelling than anything.
You get some Clément Marot, some François Villon (the original bum poet) and you're good to go. Then, from the 16th century onward, poetry starts to get some rules, that then get broken, before they make some new rules, and break it, and so on.
I like French poetry.
Thanks a lot
Your passion has inspired me to try it
While we're at it : get yourself this bad boy. Not an anthology, a guide on how French poetry works. Simple prose, well organised, and paired with the Pompidou anthology it will make you more well-read than most French I know.
How idiosyncratic was Gide with the editing? Is this really a "best of" anthology or more of a "Gide's favourites"?
I wasn't there when it was created, but it's Gide we're talking about, so I'd say yeah, absolutely "Gide's favourites". The man was pretty opinionated (I mean, he was the one who turned down Proust at Gallimard before Gallimard himself went to Grasset and bought "La Recherche" back from them, if I remember correctly)
I guess what I'm asking is whether he overrepresents particular movements, periods, or authors he likes or underrepresents authors he didn't like.
More on the overrepresentation side.
Gide has biases and his preface is quite controversial because of his strange dismissals. I suggest you seek out a .pdf of the anthology on the internet to get a first impression. You also have the intellectual right to know that Gide was quite a repulsive character and a true unapologetic pedophile before interacting with his opinions and ideas of esthetics.
I knew that. That's partly why I was asking. Anthologies made by these politically engaged lefty types are more often than not just a list of their favourites and contemporary butt buddies.
So France doesn't have anything resembling the English Arthur-Quiller anthology or the German Echtermeyer, huh? Save for that Pompidou anthology.
It is interesting yes, we don't have a tradition of influential "landmark" anthologies. Sadly, i don't have any intelligent ideas as to why... maybe the cultural context in the late 19th-early 20th wasn't favorable. There are collections in multiple paperback tomes "Anthologie poétique francaise" (Garnier-Flammarion) and "Anthologie de la poésie française du [century]" (Gallimard/NRF), their availability outside of France must be questionable, though (the first one is out of print). You will be fine if you get a quick overview with Pompidou, get into French versification with a book like the one anon posted above, and then freely branch out by reading the full works of the authors you liked in the anthology.
Tâche de bien t'amuser anon 🙂
>Rutebeuf - Charles d’Orléans - François Villon - Clément Marot - Charles Fontaine - Maurice Scève - Jacques Pelletier du Mans - Pernette du Guillet - Pierre de Ronsard - Joachim du Bellay - Louise Labé - Jacques Tahureau - Rémy Belleau - Olivier de Magny - Jean-Antoine de Baïf - Étienne Jodelle - Jean Passerat - Robert Garnier - Jean Vauquelin de La Fresnaye - Amadis Jamyn - Philippe Desportes - Agrippa d’Aubigné - François de Malherbe - Jacques Davy du Perron - Jean de Sponde - Mathurin Régnier - François Maynard - Honorat de Racan - Théophile de Viau - Tristan L’Hermite - Jacques Vallée Des Barreaux - André de Compans, R. P. Cyprien - Jean de La Fontaine - Laurent Drelincourt - Nicolas Boileau - Jean Racine - Jean-François Ducis - Jean-Pierre Claris de Florian - André Chénier - Marceline Desbordes-Valmore - Alphonse de Lamartine - Casimir Delavigne - Alfred de Vigny - Hugo - Auguste Barbier - Nerval - Musset - Gautier - Madame Ackermann - Leconte de Lisle - Baudelaire - Louis de Ménard - Banville - Charles Cros - Heredia - Mallarmé - Verlaine - Corbière - Rimbaud - Verhaeren - Moréas - Laforgue - Charles van Lerberghe - Régnier - Paul-Jean Toullet - Jammes - Valéry - Signoret - Franc-Nohain - Charles Guérin - Levet - Jacob - Ramuz - Apollinaire - Jean-Marc Bernard - Pozzi - Radiguet
I mean, is this really a controversial selection? (Gide's)
What are good accessible poems for one who’s learning the language? Earlier today I was surprised by Nicolas Gilbert’s ‘Ode imitée de plusieurs psaumes’ for how accessible it was.
It would be great to have a selection of simple accessible poems that progressively give you more melodiously complex, linguistically dependent poetry. I worry that despite grasping the sense, some more subtle aspects like syntax plays would escape me.