A former monarchist who embraced the idea of democracy, the French poet Alphonse de Lamartine dedicated most of his life to politics. Born on this day in 1790, one year after the French revolution, this renowned French author’s destiny seemed to be marked by the thirst for freedom. However, it didn’t take him long to realize that freedom could not be found in politics.
“O! lake, mute rocks, caves, leafy woodland shading,
You whom Time spares or clothes with newer sheen,
Keep of this night, fair Nature, keep unfading
Alphonse de Lamartine, The Lake
The memory ever green!”
He then put his heart and soul into writing poetry and became known as the father of French romanticism. Lamartine had only one muse – Nature, and only one religion – pantheism, which allowed him to see divinity everywhere around him. In his most popular poem The Lake, Lamartine praises the everlasting beauty of nature and reminds us of our ephemeral existence.
Knowing all this, Lamartine comes to a conclusion:
“Let’s love, then! Love, and feel while feel we can
The moment on its run.
There is no shore of Time, no port of Man.
It flows, and we go on.”
I think you might like this post:
Often on the mountain, in the shade of the old oak,
At sunset, sadly I sit down;
I wander my gaze haphazardly over the plain,
Whose changing picture unfolds at my feet.
Alphonse de Lamartine, Isolation
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, another eminent poet, was also born on this day. Coincidentally, Coleridge was the founder of the English romantic movement. Inspired by German idealism, Coleridge took refuge in poetry from his depression and opium addiction.
And in Life’s noisiest hour,
There whispers still the ceaseless Love of Thee,
The heart’s Self-solace and soliloquy.
You mould my Hopes, you fashion me within;
And to the leading Love-throb in the Heart
Thro’ all my Being, thro’ my pulses beat;
You lie in all my many Thoughts, like Light,
Like the fair light of Dawn, or summer Eve
On a rippling Stream, or cloud-reflecting Lake.
– Coleridge, The Presence of Love
Hey, you made it! You just added two more distinguished poets to your list!
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