The idea of poetry in France : from Houdar de La Motte to Baudelaire

Professor Margaret Gilman wrote in her Preface that The Idea of Poetry in France covers “a period during which the conception of poetry changed from that of embellished statement to ‘suggestive magic,’ to use Baudelaire’s phrase.” She pointed out that: “Nearly all the questions which are still at issue today were considered at debated: the essence of poetry; the function of the poet; the nature of poetic experience and poetic creation; the relative importance of inspiration, imagination and craftsmanship; the language and imagery of poetry; clarity and obscurity; the relation of poetry to prose. At the heart of these discussions, though not always explicitly stated, are two fundamental questions which are particularly relevant to the conception of poetry as suggestion: the relation between art and reality, and die relation between matter and form in poetry.“No theories of poetry, and even less a book about those theories, can have any validity dissociated from poetry itself. My hope is that the reader and lover of poetry who has felt the urge to know what other readers, what the poets themselves thought about the nature and function of poetry and the mysteries of the poetic process, may find some satisfaction in these pages.” PREFACE CONTENTS I. THE NADIR OF POETRY II. A NEW VISION OF POETRY: DIDEROT III. SENSE AND SENSIBILITY IV. THE ROAD TO ROMANTICISM V. THE ROMANTIC REVOLUTION VI. POETRY AS ART VII. FROM STATEMENT TO SUGGESTION VIII. IMAGINATION ENTHRONED: BAUDELAIRE NOTES INDEX ## Nymphes, quel est ce dieu qui reçoit votre hommage? Pourquoi cet arc et ce bandeau? Quel charme en le voyant, quel prodige nouveau De mes sens interdits me dérobe l'usage!