The Parnassians

After romanticism, a generation of French poets found it indecent to display feeling and returned to the work of the verse: the Parnassians wanted an impersonal, sculpted, exact poetry, which Gautier summed up as art for art's sake. Leconte de Lisle wrote antique poems and wild beasts motionless in the heat, Banville played with virtuosity like an acrobat, Heredia carved sonnets on the conquistadors, Sully Prudhomme became the very first Nobel laureate in literature in 1901. Symbolism would be born against that mastered coldness.

works 5

• PoetryPoesíasJosé María Heredia · 1825not translated into EnglishThe north-east of the United States, where the poet lived in exile from 1823 to 1825.LiteraturePublic domain
• Short storiesClarimondeLa Morte amoureuseThéophile Gautier · 1836A young priest meets a woman's gaze on the day of his vows, and his life splits in two.LiteraturePublic domain
• PoetryPoèmes antiquesLeconte de Lisle · 1852not translated into EnglishA poet seeks in ancient India and Greece a learned beauty, against romantic confession.Literature
• PoetryOdes funambulesquesThéodore de Banville · 1857not translated into EnglishA virtuoso poet mocks the celebrities and fashions of his time in acrobatic verse.Literature
• PoetryStances et PoèmesSully Prudhomme · 1865not translated into EnglishA young poet speaks softly of the wounds of love, in verse of very careful form.Literature