Leconte de Lisle

1818–1894

Charles-Marie Leconte de Lisle (1818–1894) was a French poet born on the island of Réunion, the leader of the Parnassian movement. Reacting against Romantic self-expression, he called for impersonal, precise and sculptural poetry.

His Poèmes antiques (1852), Poèmes barbares (1862) and Poèmes tragiques (1884) draw on Greek, Indian, Celtic and Nordic myth and on exotic landscapes, in poems such as “Midi”, “Les Éléphants” and “Le Rêve du jaguar”. He also translated Homer and the Greek tragedians and succeeded Victor Hugo in the Académie française.

Best-known poems

All poems (395)

1850s 162

1870s 1

1880s 159

1890s 22

Undated 51