like Starting from Paumanok, as pages from the poet's diary 'after roaming many lands,' instead of descriptions of imaginative wanderings. But her greatest error lies in making Whitman an incorrigible materialist1: she dubs him 'le poète de la matière.' Hopelessly misunderstanding his ethics, she declares: 'il n'y a point d'indécence qui le fasse reculer; la langue française se refuserait à la traduction de certains morceaux érotiques.' The article abounds in lengthy translations which are designed to give an idea of Whitman's form and style, the defects of which the writer rejoices that she is unable to reproduce! She cannot deny his work'une certaine grandeur et beaucoup de passion'; but her attempt to do justice to the man is paralysed by her doubts as to his healthiness of mind. Yet the article is not wholly worthless. With equal justice she censures Salut au monde and commends Drum Taps, and concludes by proclaiming Longfellow the first of American poets 'n'en déplaise à M. Walt Whitman.'

Exactly a week after the publication of Madame Bentzon's article, another, entitled 'Walt Whitman,' appeared in the seventh number? of the Renaissance artistique et littéraire. One of the chief writers in this review was a Parnassian poet, M. Émile Blémont, who contributed a series of articles on 'Poetry in England and the United States.' For the first number he wrote an essay on Swinburne, in the course of which he mentions the poem in Songs before Sunrise to 'Walt-Whitman, le grand poète de la démocratie américaine.' This remark, dated April 27, 1872, is the earliest mention of Whitman we have found in French. How entirely he was unknown in France at that period may be judged from the opening remarks of M. Blémont's enthusiastic article, which deserves to rank among the warmest of foreign tributes to a poet who, unlike Longfellow, Bryant and Poe, is 'absolument, essentiellement américain.' The writer gives a short biography of the 'pur Yankee,' and concludes the first instalment of his essay with a summary of Whitman's preface of 1855. M. Blémont's article is continued in no. 11 (July 6, 1872). Whitman is found to be no versifier, indeed he has few artistic preoccupations. 'Persuadé que le fond emporte la forme,

1 It is equally inconceivable how she came to write of the 'succès prodigieux' of the Leaves.

2 On the last page of the same number we find the following significant note. Le dernier numéro de la Revue des deux Mondes renferme un remarquable article sur Walt Whitman, le poète américain. L'article sur le même sujet que publie aujourd'hui La Renaissance était prêt depuis longtemps; mais l'abondance des matières nous a forcés à en retarder jusqu'à ce jour l'apparition. Nous aurions voulu être les premiers à signaler Whitman. Mais notre point de vue et celui de la noble Revue diffèrent tellement que nous pourrions conserver des prétentions à la découverte de cette nouvelle étoile (L. Rubio).'

sûr que l'âme jaillissante se creuse naturellement et invinciblement son lit, il n'a cure de faire pour ce torrent des quais et des passerelles.' The writer's enthusiasm does not blind him to the defects of such a style, but he feels that if Whitman's faults are monstrous, it is because the poet is a giant: 'S'il n'est pas l'art, il est bien plus, il est la vie.' The essay is concluded in the next number (July 13), with descriptions of the longer poems of the Leaves and extensive quotations. Last of all comes a glowing eulogy of the American poet. Unfortunately, while the article in the Revue des deux Mondes was widely read, M. Blémont's appreciation, written for an early number of a much less influential periodical, passed almost unnoticed. Oddly enough, on the other side of the Atlantic, the poet, to whom a friend translated some fragments of Mine Bentzon's article, expressed his joy and gratitude for what he considered a homage rendered to his work by French thought. Apparently, the friendly translator either did not understand the article or rendered only the laudatory passages. M. Blémont's essay, enlarged by a postscript, reappeared in a small volume entitled Beautés étrangères, which he published in 1904. From his new point of vantage, he sums up the influence of Whitman in France since 1872.

In February, 1884, the Revue politique et littéraire published a broad and comprehensive essay on Whitman by M. Léo Quesnel, who feels there must be something in Whitman quite foreign to the French genius, which accounts for his being almost entirely unknown in France, 'où son nom seul a frappé les oreilles.' The reason given is that Whitman is not artist enough to appeal to the writer's countrymen: 'Ses vers pour nous ne sont pas des vers.' The Leaves are poetic prose if you will, but they have nothing in common with the art of versification. Yet there are indications that the poetry of the future will lay more stress on matter than form, and that form will become more amorphous, more suitable to the multifarious variety of modern subjects. In this case, Whitman will not be wrong in considering himself 'l'initiateur d'une poétique nouvelle, faite à la taille de destinées incommensurables de l'Amérique, un Christophe Colomb de la littérature.' In another passage which we have quoted, the author declares that Whitman is untranslatable, and therefore leaves his only quotation in the language of the original, appending a free translation as footnote.

But the most adequate of these early appreciations of Whitman in France appeared in La Nouvelle Revue for May 1, 1888. This study was written by M. Gabriel Sarrazin after the publication of two new

editions of Leaves of Grass1 and Specimen Days. In the Revue contemporaine for March 25, 1885, M. Sarrazin had written: Les vrais poètes panthéistes...savent qu'il faut vivre en harmonie avec tous les incidents et accidents des mondes, et le grand Walt Whitman s'écrie à la fin de ses Leaves of Grass: "Tout est vérité et désormais je veux célébrer tout, chantant et me rejouissant sans dénier quoi que ce soit." Not content with giving an interesting causerie on a 'new' poet, the author strives to reach the altitude of Whitman's universal enthusiasm or to fathom the deeps of his thought and sympathy. 'La poésie de Walt Whitman,' he says, 'proclama la première le panthéisme complet, sans atténuation, et avec toutes ses conséquences.' Once again, as was the case with the prophets of old, a living soul speaks to the Supreme God-a living soul who means to maintain his identity throughout eternity. Whitman,' says the writer, 'n'est pas un artiste : il est au-dessus de l'art'; and he gives a number of long translations to illustrate the characteristics of Whitman's poetry. The study ends with a warm appreciation of Whitman as a man.

Whitman's death was the occasion of a few articles in the French reviews. The Revue politique et littéraire, which had already given M. Léo Quesnel's essay, inserted another interesting article on Whitman, by M. de Wyzewa, to which we shall refer later. Les Entretiens politiques et littéraires published a short article by M. VieléGriffin entitled 'Autobiographie de Walt Whitman,' ending with this confession: 'Quelques pages de Whitman ont été traduites en français ; la première, Étoile de France (traduite par Jules Laforgue et imprimée dans La Vogue), est un généreux et enthousiaste salut d'espoir à la vaincue de '70....J'ai offert il y a deux ans pour rien une traduction de Whitman à l'éditeur Savine, il me fut gracieusement répondu que l'auteur de Brins d'Herbe était "trop peu connu.' The same year saw the publication in the Revue Encyclopédique of B. H. Gausseron's article, dealing mostly with Whitman's life and personality, and concluding with a brief bibliography. Nothing more of importance seems to have been written in France about Whitman for nearly ten years3.

1 Glasgow, Wilson and McCormac, 1884.

2 London, Walter Scott, 1887.

3 Tome i, No. 3.

This is little more than a translation of an article on the 'only American poet' in the New York Herald for January 24, 1892.

We may note in passing an amusing reference to Whitman in M. Léon A. Daudet's satire Les Kamtchatka (1895). Mention of Whitman in connection with the early Symbolists or decadents is not without significance (p. 94).

:

The last essay inspired by the American poet in France before the appearance of M. Bazalgette's biography was a lecture1 delivered by Joseph Lecomte on Feb. 2, 1907, at the Université populaire du quartier Nord-Est of Brussels; it is interesting for the translations which it contains these attempt to reproduce the form of the original poems. From the bibliography we transcribe the following: 'J'ai connu l'existence de Whitman,' writes Lecomte, 'par un passage d'Escal Vigor (2e partie, chap. viii), roman que je lus en 1901. Plus tard un article. de J. de Norvins paru dans la Revue des Revues du 15 jan. 1902, m'apprit que Whitman faisait "vibrer dans la poésie l'accent du progrès et de l'humanitarisme." Puis le Nouveau Larousse illustré me fit connaître la date du décès du poète et le titre de son œuvre principale.'

In June, 1908, the Society of the Mercure de France published Walt Whitman, l'Homme et son Euvre, in which M. Léon Bazalgette gave France her first biography of Whitman and the world one of the most enthusiastic appreciations of the American prophet-poet. 'C'est à Bazalgette,' writes a prominent French critic2, 'que nous devons d'aimer Whitman. Le même homme qui a mené à bien la plus pieuse, la plus respectueuse des traductions, a compris qu'il ne fallait pas ignorer la vie d'un écrivain qui voulut que ses actes demeurassent ses plus beaux poèmes.'

What is the significance of these essays and translations published over a period of thirty years in France? Are they merely accidental, the result of a sudden or superficial inspiration; or does the persistence with which French poets and critics have returned to the same subject point to the satisfying of some growing need? If but an indication of passing interest, the recurrence of Whitman's name in French reviews must be explained by the 'novelty,' the naïve 'originality' of the first Yankee poet. A matter of momentary notice affording a ready subject for feminine raillery, he undoubtedly was to Mme Thérèse Bentzon, and it is surprising that the venerable Revue des deux Mondes should have devoted twenty pages to a poet so unworthy of the name as 'le prétendu Christophe Colomb de l'art américain' was alleged to be.

1 We quote this list of subsequent lectures: 'En janvier 1909 Joseph Lecomte fait deux conférences, l'une à l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes Sociales, l'autre à l'Université populaire du faubourg Saint-Antoine. La traduction des Feuilles d'herbe paraît. Une autre conférence est faite à l'Université populaire du faubourg Saint-Antoine par Paul-Hyacinthe Loyson. A l'Université Nouvelle de Bruxelles, Louis Pierard, le poète des Images Boraines et l'observateur de la vie du peuple, consacre trois causeries aux Feuilles d'Herbe cependant qu'infatigable J. Lecomte va les présenter au public ouvrier de Frameries et Philéas Lebesgue fait un superbe portrait, à Rouen, à Elbeuf-sur-Seine et à Dieppe' (Henri Guilbeaux, Portraits d'Hier, No. 37, Sept. 15, 1910).

2 M. Georges Duhamel, Propos Critiques, p. 22.

Even more impotent than the early venomous attacks launched against the Leaves of Grass by American reviews, this first French criticism seems to have had no effect on the growing interest felt for Whitman in France ever since M. Blémont's fervent but ill-fated essay in the Renaissance artistique et littéraire.

We find the possibility of Whitman's influence in France discussed first by M. Léo Quesnel in 1884. He speaks of the gulf separating Whitman's 'inartistic' poetry from French art; but prophesies a possible tendency in Whitman's direction. He seems to have had a glimpse of the truth when he said: 'Nous croyons que l'avenir sera, en matière de poésie, plus exigeant sur la pensée que sur la forme; que l'abandon, commencé en Angleterre de la rime et en France de la césure, est le premier pas vers l'habitude d'une harmonie plus large et plus mâle. S'il en est ainsi, Whitman sera un des hommes qui auront, non pas atteint, mais marqué le but.' But nowhere is the question of the supposed influence of Whitman on the early Symbolists so fully discussed as in an article which M. Teodor de Wyzewa published as early as 1892 in La Revue Bleue, and from which we take the following striking passages. Lorsque, dans quelques années, nous serons enfin débarrassés du XIXe siècle, les critiques chargés de procéder à sa liquidation seront stupéfaits d'avoir à constater l'énorme influence de Walt Whitman sur notre mouvement littéraire contemporain. Car il leur faudra bien reconnaître que de toutes les innovations tentées depuis vingt-cinq ans dans notre littérature, et de celles qui touchent la forme, et de celles qui touchent les idées et les sentiments, il n'y en a pas une qui ne se trouve indiquée, réalisée, peut-être même exagérée dans le premier volume des poèmes de Walt Whitman, les Brins d'Herbe, publié en 1855. The writer finds in the Leaves not only the most radical naturalism, but free verse and subjective lyricism carried to their furthest extremes. Nos poètes s'essayent depuis tantôt dix ans à libérer le vers; jamais pourtant ils n'oseront pousser la libération au point où l'a d'emblée poussée Walt Whitman....Après le vers libre, nous avons eu le culte et la culture du moi. Ce sont encore deux choses que Walt Whitman a bien connues et dès 1885...à toutes les phases de la culture de son moi il a pris soin d'intéresser ses lecteurs; il poussait jusqu'à la manie le goût de l'autobiographie.' Speaking of the beneficial influence which another aspect of Whitman's poetry might have on the young poets of his day, M. de Wyzewa writes: 'On ne saurait leur proposer un plus enviable modèle de compagnon de la vie nouvelle, ou, comme on dit encore, de néo-chrétien....Quand il ne chante