The Cambridge Introduction to French Poetry

Mary Shaw covers all aspects of French poetry from the Middle Ages to the present day in this text. Chapters focus on verse, genres, poetry, politics and philosophy among other topics. Designed specifically for use in courses, the volume contains a useful glossary of poetic terms, and is invaluable to students as well as teachers.

The Cambridge Introduction to French Poetry is a comprehensive survey of French poetry. The poets discussed - all quoted in the original, followed by an English translation - belong to every period from the eleventh century to the present, and include Francophone authors from areas other than France. The goals of this Introduction are to provide tools for the analysis of French poems, while assessing ever-changing distinctions and hierarchies between verse and prose, forms and genres, and levels of style; and to give a sense of French poetry's endless quest for self-definition, by examining its ambivalent relations with political realities, philosophical ideas, and the achievements of other arts, notably music and painting. Accessible, wide-ranging and designed specifically for use on courses, this Introduction contains a useful glossary of poetic terms, and will prove invaluable to students and teachers alike.

Illustrations; Prologue. French poetry?; 1. Verse and prose; 2. Forms and genres; 3. Words and figures; 4. Poetry and politics; 5. Poetry and philosophy; Epilogue. Poetry and the arts; Glossary.

A comprehensive survey of French poetry. The poets discussed - all quoted in the original, followed by an English translation - belong to every period from the eleventh century to the present, and include Francophone authors from areas other than France.

Mary Lewis Shaw is Associate Professor of French at Rutgers University. She is the author of Performance in the Texts of Mallarmé: The Passage from Art to Ritual (1993).