SULLY PRUDHOMME (1839-1907)

SULLY PRUDHOMME (1839-1907)

Autograph poem signed « Sully Prudhomme »
N.p.n.d, 1 p. in-8° on laid paper
Slight ink smudge on the lower part of the sheet
Annotation “41” by another hand in the upper left corner
Watermark “Imperial treasure”

Rare and precious manuscript of his poem Ici-bas, which has remained one of his most famous, from his early collection Stances et Poèmes

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« Ici-bas tous les lilas meurent,
Tous les chants des oiseaux sont courts,
Je rêve aux étés qui demeurent
Toujours…

Ici-bas les lèvres effleurent
Sans rien laisser de leur velours,
Je rêve aux baisers qui demeurent
Toujours…

Ici-bas, tous les hommes pleurent
Leurs amitiés ou leurs amours ;
Je rêve aux couples qui demeurent
Toujours…

Sully Prudhomme »

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This poem is, along with Le Vase brisé, one of Sully Prudhomme’s most celebrated poems. Taken from the collection Stances et Poèmes, which was praised in his time by Sainte-Beuve, these early poems allowed the future first winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature to launch his career. Following in the pure Parnassian tradition alongside Banville, Villiers de L’Isle-Adam and José-Maria de Heredia, Sully Prudhomme found the indispensable support in the person of Alphonse Lemerre for the publication of this first collection. The following year, in 1866, the latter published the first of the three volumes of the Parnasse contemporain, in which the young poet actively participated.
Composed of three heterometric quatrains in octosyllable with crossed rhymes, the meter of the verse used here by the poet reveals some pleasant innovations that can be found elsewhere in some of his Parnassian comrades. One can also appreciate the harmony of the poem as a whole, making it very touching by the solemnity of the tone used, reinforced by its anaphoric formula at the end of each stanza.
Ici-bas was set to music by Gabriel Fauré in a score for piano and voice for tenor or soprano. The melody in fa dièse is dedicated to Madame G. Lecoq. It was premiered in Paris on December 12, 1874.