Selected Poems

by Ronsard, Pierre (Author); Quainton, Malcolm (Translator); Vinestock, Elizabeth (Translator)

• ISBN13: 9780140424249
• ISBN10: 0140424245
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-10-29
• Publisher: Penguin Classics

Summary

One of France's most influential love poets, Pierre de Ronsard embraced a variety of themes from politics, science, and philosophy to bawdy and risqué material that outraged religious reformers. Drawing on classical and Italian poetic models and on powerful imagery from ancient mythology, Ronsard created verse that revolutionized the French poetic tradition. His style ranges from the sublime rhetoric of the Pindaric odes and hymns to the lyricism and sensuality of his sonnets. Ronsard's poetry has influenced many twentieth-century writers and artists, including W. B. Yeats, Sylvia Plath, and Henri Matisse. The dual-language format of this new edition provides English-speaking readers with an enhanced perspective on one of the most innovative voices in the history of European poetry.

Author Biography

Pierrre de Ronsard (1524-1585) was the leader of the Pl+¬iade group of poets. He is most famous for his odes and his later sonnet sequences, which were a great influence on the English sonnet writers of the sixteenth century.

Malcolm Quainton is professor of French at Lancaster University. He is the author of Distant Voices Still Heard, with John O'Brien.