Victor Hugo, Odes et Ballades [Odes and Ballads]

Laurence M. Porter (Michigan State University)

Ed. by Tim Unwin, University of Bristol
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.5.2.05: French Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth-Century , 1800-1900.
Vol. editors: Edward Forman (University of Bristol), Nigel Harkness (University of Newcastle upon Tyne), Tim Unwin (University of Bristol), David Williams (University of Sheffield), Jennifer Yee (University of Oxford)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1822 - 1828

Places

France (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Ballad
Ode
Poetry (any)

Resources

Victor Hugo began writing poetry regularly at the age of twelve. At seventeen, he twice won prizes at France’s major poetry contest, the Jeux Floraux of Toulouse, and became a “Maître” who could thenceforth judge that competition. Chateaubriand, the leading writer of early nineteenth-century France, called him a “sublime child” (Albouy, ed., lxiii). King Louis XVIII awarded him a permanent state pension in 1822. He was appointed poet laureate for Charles X’s coronation in 1825. Among European poets, only Goethe and Shelley matched Hugo’s precocious mastery of versification, stanzaic forms, and classic lyrical modes from Ancient Greece and Rome (ode, elegy, verse narrative, and satire).

The Odes et Ballades (1…

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1599 words

Citation: Porter, Laurence M.. "Odes et Ballades". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 May 2011 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=11215, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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