BalladPoem used in the Middle Ages, often accompanied by music and comprising three stanzas, the last of which is shorter.

RondeauA poem of fixed form containing two rhymes and repeated verses, notably employed between 13th and 16th centuries. Initially, a rondeau was a song intended for dancing.

SonnetThis type of poetry appeared [Read more]

The very example of the myth of the damned poet, Charles Baudelaire marked the 19th century by his work and symbolized poetic modernity. His brief existence was characterized by a dual obsession: spleen and the ideal.

Coming from a cultivated, refined bourgeois milieu, Baudelaire first became known as an art critic. In 1848 he translated [Read more]

A cloud of mystery surrounds the existence of Homer, the celebrated Greek poet. He is attributed with the paternity of the two oldest poetic works which have journeyed through time to us, namely "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey".

Homer lived during the 8th century BC. Legend has it that he was blind and recited his poetry [Read more]

Each day I must face, death in small doses.Your parting has taken, kindness in life.I long for the end, when it all closes.For lost are the days, I call you my wife.Wish for the peace and want of the feeling-until my heart stills and frees me from you.Left forsaken, no comfort, no healing-shut out my mind and forget what I knew.And when it [Read more]

A literary movement in the world of poetry, Le Parnasse appeared in France shortly before 1860. It broke with romanticism and wished to see disappear all social or political commitment in poetic works.

Théophile Gautier was the precursor of this movement, and the most famous "Parnassiens" were Leconte de Lisle, Sully [Read more]

Both a literary and artistic movement, symbolism developed in Europe towards the end of the 19th century (1870). In literature, we generally associate the official birth of symbolism in literature with the appearance of the "Surrealist Manifesto" published in the Figaro by the poet Jean Moréas on September 18, 1886. This [Read more]