Joseph Autran (20 June 1813 – 6 March 1877) was a French poet.
Biography
Autran was born in
Marseille
Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...
. In 1832 he addressed an
ode
An ode (from grc, ᾠδή, ōdḗ) is a type of lyric poetry. Odes are elaborately structured poems praising or glorifying an event or individual, describing nature intellectually as well as emotionally. A classic ode is structured in three majo ...
to
Alphonse de Lamartine
Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine (; 21 October 179028 February 1869), was a French author, poet, and statesman who was instrumental in the foundation of the Second Republic and the continuation of the Tricolore as the flag of France. ...
, who was then at Marseille on his way to the East. Lamartine persuaded the young man's father to allow him to follow his poetic instinct, and Autran became Lamartine's faithful disciple from then on.
His best known work is ''La Mer'' (1835), remodelled in 1852 as ''Les Poèmes de la mer''. ''Ludibria ventis'' (1838) followed, and the success of these two volumes gained for Autran the librarianship of his native town.
In 1844/5
Franz Liszt, who met Autran in Marseille in 1844, set four of his poems, ''La terre'', ''Les aquilons'', ''Les flots'' and ''Les astres'', for choir and piano as a cycle, ''
Les quatre élémens''.
Autran's other important work is his ''Vie rurale'' (1856), a series of pictures of peasant life. The
Algeria
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n campaigns inspired him with verses in honour of the common soldier. ''Milianah'' (1842) describes the heroic defence of that town, and in the same vein is his ''Laboureurs et soldats'' (1854).
Among his other works are the ''Paroles de Salomon'' (1868), ''Épîtres rustiques'' (1861), ''Sonnets capricieux'', and a tragedy played with great success at the
Odéon in 1848, ''La Fille d'Eschyle''. A definitive edition of his works was brought out between 1875 and 1881.
He became a member of the
Académie française in 1868, and died at Marseille nine years later.
Works
*''Le Départ pour l'Orient : ode à M.
Alphonse de Lamartine
Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine (; 21 October 179028 February 1869), was a French author, poet, and statesman who was instrumental in the foundation of the Second Republic and the continuation of the Tricolore as the flag of France. ...
'' (1832)
*''La Mer : poésies'' (1835)
*''Ludibria ventis : poésies nouvelles'' (1838)
*''L'An 40 : ballades et poésies musicales, suivies de Marseille'' (1840)
*''Milianah : poème'' (1841)
*''Italie et Semaine sainte à Rome'' (1841)
*''La Fille d'Eschyle : étude antique en 5 actes, en vers'', Paris,
Théâtre de l'Odéon, 9 mars 1848
*''Les Poëmes de la mer'' (1852)
*''Laboureurs et soldats'' (1854)
*''La Vie rurale : tableaux et récits'' (1856)
*''Etienne et Clémentine (1858)
*''Épîtres rustiques'' (1861)
*''Le Poème des beaux jours'' (1862)
*''Le Cyclope, d'après
Euripide'' (1863)
*''Paroles de Salomon'' (1869)
*''Sonnets capricieux'' (1873)
*''La Légende des paladins'' (1875)
*''Œuvres complètes'' (1875–82)
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Autran, Joseph
1813 births
1877 deaths
Writers from Marseille
19th-century French poets
French male poets
19th-century French male writers
Members of the Académie Française