Our 'rock star' Ronsard

Mesdames,

I am already thinking ahead to Ronsard, since, alas, I will not be able to present in person next week. Get ready for what I like to call 'psycho Baroque love poetry' at its finest. In Michel Beaujour's article in Hollier (pp. 198-202 in the paperback edition), it seems that Ronsard had a bit of an ego: 'In 1550 or thereabout, Ronsard had devised a new poetics in order to justify his claim that he was at once the first French lyric poet and the legitimate heir to ancient poetry.' (p. 202) No shrinking violet, he.

Les Amours de Cassandre was published in 1552, and is also entitled 'Le Premier Livre des Amours'. It consists of 229 sonnets, with some madrigals and elegies interspersed. I have some notes on Ronsard from an Alan Smith class I took a couple of years ago that I will share in my 'official' post.

A demain.

Holly