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Fire Breathing: Conflicted Desire in Leconte de Lisle's “Midi”

2008; Routledge; Volume: 19; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/10436920802519902

1545-5866

Scott Shinabargar,

Medieval European Literature and History

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes “The following poems were conceived and written under the influence of these ideas, unconscious initially, and then reflected upon. Erroneous (the ideas), they will be null; for the merit or inadequacy of the language and the style depends expressly on the initial conception; true and timely, they (the poems) will necessarily be of some value” (For a thorough analysis of the Parnassian school, and the particular influence of Leconte de Lisle on the new generation of writers, see Yann Mortelette's recent study). All citations of the poem are from Poèmes Antiques (278–79). It is interesting at this point to note the symbolic treatment of the sun in ancient Greece, considering the inestimable influence of that culture on the formation of Leconte de Lisle's thought and poetry. In the work of Homer and other poets, Helios is often identified as “all-seeing” and “all-nurturing” (Classical Myth 247). Dixon-Kennedy observes, “Helios was frequently confused with Apollo in his guise of Phoebus, but his attributes are purely spiritual, whereas Helios was a tangible deity, the charioteer driving the four winged horses that pulled his chariot from east to west” (Dixon-Kennedy 140). This would explain the conflicting symbolic functions assigned to the sun of “Midi”—at once the insentient, absolute real, and the agent of absolute, “sublime” expression (Apollo was of course the god of poetry). The least ambiguous, most direct lineage for Leconte de Lisle's sun is perhaps to be found not in the Greek but Roman tradition. In that culture, with its exalted sense of its own power and superiority, Helios becomes “Sol Invictus—‘the Invincible’—a special protector of the emperors” (Dixon-Kennedy 149). Francis Vincent notes that the poet himself was critical of this particular poem and its reception. Furthermore, in a cruel twist of fate, Alexandre Dumas cited a good deal of the text, and virtually this text alone, when the poet was finally inducted to the Académie Française (F. Vincent 212). “These full stops, making a mid-line crisis, should be enough to persuade the most hardened non-reader of punctuation of its importance, and even of its possible delights” (Caws 108). “O Poets, what would you say, what would you teach? Who has conferred upon you the character and the language of authority? What dogma sanctions your apostolate? Come! You exhaust yourselves in the void, and your time has come. You are no longer heard, because you can only reproduce a sum of ideas that are henceforth insufficient; the age no longer hears you, because you have annoyed it with your sterile complaints. …” “there is…such an absence of virility and real ardor, this language/tongue is so limp, effeminate and deficient, the verse is so lacking in muscles, blood and nerves, that it is impossible to undertake a reading and study of it without an intolerable malaise.…his acts are determined by neither the will nor passion; he succumbs to the merest gust of inspiration and floats perpetually between despair and resignation, without resolving himself to anything.” Peter Hambly has recently shown how the pronounced pessimism of Leconte de Lisle's world-view can be traced back to his early enthusiasm for the ideas of the utopian socialist, Charles Fourier. Bárdos has noted this conflict with the Parnassian esthetic (332). Leconte de Lisle's assessment of Hugo's virility may not have been entirely based on the older poet's literary merit. Hugo's multiple liaisons with admiring “fans” was well known (See Besson 244, 339). The reason for calling attention to this act of defiance will become apparent presently. Gérard Genette has argued very convincingly for the recognition of such effects. Citing a number of linguists, he asserts that vocalic contasts are intuitively perceived in terms of light and dark, corresponding to their articulation (anterior and posterior, respectively) (Genette 319–20). Furthermore, when encountered in relation to each other, these opposing tones are perceived as rising and sinking dynamics, corresponding to the inflections of spoken discourse: (There exists) an obligatory path high-low, which is that of an opening followed by a resolution of the type question-response or dominant-tonic. For a rather unclear reason, but one that is evidently due to their expressive capacity, the high vowels systematically have the value of protasis and the low ones that of apodosis. Patati-patata {blah-blah-blah} is the (euphonic) order of discourse. (Genette 322) It should be noted, the following catalogue of opposing qualities associated with these planes does not reflect the values of the present author but those of the poet. Cf. Caws (110) on the opposition near/far throughout the text. Anthony Earl has observed the same dynamic nexus of elements–figures of organic, sexual, and artistic generation, dependant on animating principles of “inspiration” and “illumination”–at the source of another of Leconte de Lisle's texts, “Vénus de Milo”: Pour le poète, le moment culminant de la genèse de la Terre serait celui o[ugrave] Zeus descendait de son trône pour ensemencer la Terre. Ilconclut son poème en regrettant un bonheur impossible, et prie finalement de recevoir l'inspiration (qui)…produira la clarté et la discipline d'expression qui créent la pensée parfaite. Les deux derniers vers: ‘Et fais que ma pensée en rythmes d’or ruisselle,/Comme un divin métal au moule harmonieux’ préfigurent ce qui sera une filière de créativité chez d'autres poètes. For the poet, the culminating point in the genesis of the Earth is the moment when Zeus descends from his throne to inseminate the Earth. He concludes his poem regretting an impossible happiness, and prays in the end to receive the inspiration (that)…will produce the clarity and discipline of expression that create perfect thought. The two final lines: ‘And grant that my thought streams in rhythms of gold/Like a divine metal through a harmonious mold' prefigure what will be a path of creativity for other poets.’ (Earl 568) Considering Leconte de Lisle's knowledge of Greek literature, this tableau was very likely inspired by the work of a much earlier philosopher. In Book IX of the Republic, Socrates depicts the common “herd” in similar terms, even situating them through the spatial terms observed in “Midi” (“this region,” “the mean” versus the “upper world”) though they lack here, in keeping with the idealism of Plato's thought, the purity of being attributed to them in “Midi”: Those who know not wisdom and virtue, and are always busy with gluttony and sensuality, go down and up again as far as the mean; and in this region they move at random throughout life, but they never pass into the true upper world; thither they neither look, nor do they ever find their way, neither are they truly filled with true being, nor do they taste of pure and abiding pleasure. Like cattle, with their eyes always looking down and their heads stopping to the earth, that is, to the dining table, they fatten and feed and breed. (Plato 368) Pierre Flottes has identified this problematic element of the poet's embrace of “le néant” (“the void” [108]). See also Vivès Vincent (34–35). “With the exception of several of his poems, the monologue, the lyric invocation maintains its role (Quain!), the scenes thus evoked, the narrative passages, the language etc., continually revealing the point of view, the sympathies, the antipathies, etc., of the poet. It is for this reason that some view Hérédia as a truer representative of the Parnassian movement.” In his original work on the applications of speech articulation in poetic language, André Spire identifies an inherent tendency to such patterns, based on their relative facility; an ease which coincidences with the movement of the breath itself, interestingly enough. In such patterns, he observes, the tongue is engaged in “une sorte de mouvement ondulatoire qui la rapproche d'abord du point le plus voisin du larynx, source de la parole, et ensuite de points de plus en plus avancés. C'est une application du principe de moindre action… . cet ordre que Maurice Grammont appelle l'ordre expiratoire ” (“a wave-like movement that first brings it back to the point nearest the larynx, the source of speech, and then to points that are progressively advanced. It is an application of the principle of minimal exertion… . that order that Maurice Grammont calls the order of expiration [breathing out]” [Spire 257]). We find a similar predominance of these phonemes in the poet's critical writing, where they coincide, interestingly enough, with the masculine. Vigny is the poet of “virility” and “force,” not only because his writing embodies these qualities, but because his very name does: “le poëte syracusain (Théocrite) ne saurait lutter contre Alfred de Vigny; il est rude et passionné; ses paysages sont des études de nature vigoureuses et vraies, et quand il touche aux choses épiques, c'est avec une force et une hauteur peu communes” (“The Syracusan poet [Theocritus] would be incapable of combatting Alfred de Vigny; his landscapes are vigorous and true, and when he touches on epic things, it is with an uncommon force and stature” [Articles 181]); “Si poëte veut dire créateur, celui-là seul est un vrai poète qui donne à ses créations la diversité multiple de la vie, et devient, selon qu'il le veut, une Force impersonnelle” “If [the word] poet means creator, he alone is a true poet who invests his creations with the multiple diversity of life, and becomes, according to his desire, an impersonal Force” [Articles 182]). Mary Ann Caws also finds the poet “intoxicated” with/in his own text (Caws 113). The “poietic” is contrasted with the esthetic here to emphasize the creative act that actually produces the work of art, as opposed to the conceptualization of what that work should be. Additional informationNotes on contributorsScott Shinabargar Scott Shinabargar is an Associate professor of French at Clark Atlanta University. His research addresses the relation between ethics and esthetics in the modern era, analyzing the textual processes that arise from their intersection.