Francis Jammes (; 2 December 1868, in

Tournay, Hautes-Pyrénées Tournay (; oc-gsc, Tornai) is a Communes of France, commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées Departments of France, department, southwestern France. Tournay station has rail connections to Toulouse, Tarbes and Pau. Geography Climate Tournay has a ocean ...

– 1 November 1938, in

Hasparren Hasparren (; eu, Hazparne) is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France. A resident of Hasparren is known as a 'Hazpandar'. Geography Location It's a ''commune fait partie'' of the Basque Province of Labo ...

Pyrénées-Atlantiques Pyrénées-Atlantiques (; Gascon Occitan: ''Pirenèus Atlantics''; eu, Pirinio Atlantiarrak or ) is a department in the southwest corner of France and of the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Named after the Pyrenees mountain range and the Atlant ...

) was a French and European

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems ( oral or wri ...

. He spent most of his life in his native region of Béarn and the Basque Country and his poems are known for their lyricism and for singing the pleasures of a humble country life (donkeys, maidens). His later poetry remained lyrical, but also included a strong religious element brought on by his (re)conversion to

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in 1905.

Biography

Jammes was a mediocre student and failed his baccalauréat with a zero for French. w:fr:Francis Jammes His first poems began to be read in Parisian literary circles around 1895, and were appreciated for a fresh tone breaking away from

symbolism Symbolism or symbolist may refer to: Arts * Symbolism (arts), a 19th-century movement rejecting Realism ** Symbolist movement in Romania, symbolist literature and visual arts in Romania during the late 19th and early 20th centuries ** Russian sym ...

. In 1896 Jammes travelled to

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

with

André Gide André Paul Guillaume Gide (; 22 November 1869 – 19 February 1951) was a French author and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature (in 1947). Gide's career ranged from its beginnings in the symbolist movement, to the advent of anticolonialism ...

. He fraternised with other writers, including Stéphane Mallarmé and

Henri de Régnier Henri-François-Joseph de Régnier (28 December 1864 – 23 May 1936) was a French symbolist poet, considered one of the most important of France during the early 20th century. Life and works He was born in Honfleur ( Calvados) on 28 December 1 ...

. His most famous collection of poems — ''De l'angélus de l'aube à l'angélus du soir'' ("From morning Angelus to evening Angelus") — appeared in 1897 in the

Mercure de France The was originally a French gazette and literary magazine first published in the 17th century, but after several incarnations has evolved as a publisher, and is now part of the Éditions Gallimard publishing group. The gazette was published ...

; ''Le Deuil des Primevères'' ("The Mourning of Primulas") (1901) was also well received. Working up to that point as a notary's clerk, Jammes was then able to make a living from his writing. In 1905, influenced by the poet

Paul Claudel Paul Claudel (; 6 August 1868 – 23 February 1955) was a French poet, dramatist and diplomat, and the younger brother of the sculptor Camille Claudel. He was most famous for his verse dramas, which often convey his devout Catholicism. Early lif ...

to whom he became close, he converted to a practicing

. His poetry became more austere and sometimes dogmatic. In the eyes of Parisian literary circles, Francis Jammes was generally considered a solitary provincial who chose to live a life of retreat in his mountainous

Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...

, and his poems never became entirely fashionable. The author sought nomination to the Académie française several times, but was never elected. Jammes was the original author of

Georges Brassens Georges Charles Brassens (; 22 October 1921 – 29 October 1981) was a French singer-songwriter and poet. As an iconic figure in France, he achieved fame through his elegant songs with their harmonically complex music for voice and guitar and a ...

's song ''La Prière'' ("The Prayer"). The lyrics were taken from the poem ''Les Mystères douloureux'' ("The Agonies of Christ") published in the collection ''L'Église habillée de feuilles'' ("The Church Clothed in Leaves") (1906); Brassens changed some of the words to make the text more rhythmic. Jammes was known to have an ardent passion for field sports, especially game hunting. He was known to have also been a believer in the conservation of endangered species. Thirteen poems from his cycle ''Tristesses'' ("Sorrows"), were set to music by composer

Lili Boulanger Marie Juliette "Lili" Boulanger (; 21 August 189315 March 1918) was a French composer and the first female winner of the Prix de Rome composition prize. Her older sister was the noted composer and composition teacher Nadia Boulanger. Biography ...

in 1914 under the title ''Clairières dans le ciel'' ("Clearings in the Sky") a title Jammes had given to an assorted collection of poetry of which ''Tristesses'' was a part. The whole cycle was composed for soprano, flute and piano by

Michel Bosc Michel may refer to: * Michel (name), a given name or surname of French origin (and list of people with the name) * Míchel (nickname), a nickname (a list of people with the nickname, mainly Spanish footballers) * Míchel (footballer, born 1963), ...

Works

Poetry

Each year links to its corresponding "

ear An ear is the organ that enables hearing and, in mammals, body balance using the vestibular system. In mammals, the ear is usually described as having three parts—the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. The outer ear consists of ...

in poetry" article: *

1891 Events January–March * January 1 ** Paying of old age pensions begins in Germany. ** A strike of 500 Hungarian steel workers occurs; 3,000 men are out of work as a consequence. ** Germany takes formal possession of its new Af ...

: ''Six Sonnets''Web page title
"POET Francis Jammes (1868 - 1938)"
at The Poetry Foundation website, retrieved August 30, 2009 *

1892 Events January–March * January 1 – Ellis Island begins accommodating immigrants to the United States. * February 1 - The historic Enterprise Bar and Grill was established in Rico, Colorado. * February 27 – Rudolf Diesel applies fo ...

: ''Vers'', also

1893 Events January–March * January 2 – Webb C. Ball introduces railroad chronometers, which become the general railroad timepiece standards in North America. * Mark Twain started writing Puddn'head Wilson. * January 6 – Th ...

and

1894 Events January–March * January 4 – A military alliance is established between the French Third Republic and the Russian Empire. * January 7 – William Kennedy Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film in the United S ...

Rees, William
''The Penguin book of French poetry: 1820-1950 : with prose translations''
p 413, Penguin Classics, 1992, , retrieved via Google Books, August 30, 2009 *

1895 Events January–March * January 5 – Dreyfus affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his army rank, and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island. * January 12 – The National Trust for Places of Histor ...

: ''Un jour'' *

1897 Events January–March * January 2 – The International Alpha Omicron Pi sorority is founded, in New York City. * January 4 – A British force is ambushed by Chief Ologbosere, son-in-law of the ruler. This leads to a puni ...

: ''La Naissance du poète'' ("The Birth of the Poet") *

1898 Events January–March * January 1 – New York City annexes land from surrounding counties, creating the City of Greater New York as the world's second largest. The city is geographically divided into five boroughs: Manhattan, B ...

: ''Quatorze prières'' *

: ''De l'Angélus de l'aube à l'Angélus du soir'' ("From the Morning Prayer to the Evening Prayer") *

1899 Events January 1899 * January 1 ** Spanish rule ends in Cuba, concluding 400 years of the Spanish Empire in the Americas. ** Queens and Staten Island become administratively part of New York City. * January 2 – **Bolivia sets up a c ...

: ''Le Poète et l'oiseau'' ("The Poet and the Bird") *

: ''La Jeune Fille nue'' *

1900 As of March 1 ( O.S. February 17), when the Julian calendar acknowledged a leap day and the Gregorian calendar did not, the Julian calendar fell one day further behind, bringing the difference to 13 days until February 28 ( O.S. February 15), 2 ...

–

1901 Events January * January 1 – The British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia federate as the Commonwealth of Australia; Edmund Barton becomes the first Prime Minist ...

: ''Le Triomphe de la vie'' *

: ''Le Deuil des primevères'' *

1902 Events January * January 1 ** The Nurses Registration Act 1901 comes into effect in New Zealand, making it the first country in the world to require state registration of nurses. On January 10, Ellen Dougherty becomes the world' ...

–

1906 Events January–February * January 12 – Persian Constitutional Revolution: A nationalistic coalition of merchants, religious leaders and intellectuals in Persia forces the shah Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar to grant a constitution, ...

: ''Clairières dans le ciel'' *

1905 As the second year of the massive Russo-Japanese War begins, more than 100,000 die in the largest world battles of that era, and the war chaos leads to the 1905 Russian Revolution against Nicholas II of Russia ( Shostakovich's 11th Symphony ...

: ''Tristesses'' *

: ''Clairières dans le Ciel'' *

: ''L'Eglise habillée de feuilles'' *

: ''Le Triomphe de la vie'' *

1908 Events January * January 1 – The British ''Nimrod'' Expedition led by Ernest Shackleton sets sail from New Zealand on the ''Nimrod'' for Antarctica. * January 3 – A total solar eclipse is visible in the Pacific Ocean, and is the 4 ...

: ''Poèmes mesurés'' *

: ''Rayons de miel'', Paris: Bibliothèque de l'Occident *

1911 A notable ongoing event was the Comparison of the Amundsen and Scott Expeditions, race for the South Pole. Events January * January 1 – A decade after federation, the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory ...

– 1912: ''Les Géorgiques chrétiennes'' ("Christian Georgics"), three volumes *

1913 Events January * January 5 – First Balkan War: Battle of Lemnos – Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it will not venture for the rest of the ...

: ''Feuilles dans le vent'' *

1916 Events Below, the events of the First World War have the "WWI" prefix. January * January 1 – The British Royal Army Medical Corps carries out the first successful blood transfusion, using blood that had been stored and cooled. * J ...

: ''Cinq prières pour le temps de la guerre'', Paris: Librairie de l'Art catholique *

1919 Events January * January 1 ** The Czechoslovak Legions occupy much of the self-proclaimed "free city" of Pressburg (now Bratislava), enforcing its incorporation into the new republic of Czechoslovakia. ** HMY ''Iolaire'' sinks off the ...

: ''La Vierge et les sonnets'', Paris: Mercure de France * 1921: ''Épitaphes'', Paris: Librairie de l'Art catholic * 1921: ''Le Tombeau de Jean de la Fontaine'', Paris: Mercure de France *

1922 Events January * January 7 – Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes. * January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éireann, the day after Éamon de Valera ...

1923 Events January–February * January 9 – Lithuania begins the Klaipėda Revolt to annex the Klaipėda Region (Memel Territory). * January 11 – Despite strong British protests, troops from France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area, t ...

1924 Events January * January 12 – Gopinath Saha shoots Ernest Day, whom he has mistaken for Sir Charles Tegart, the police commissioner of Calcutta, and is arrested soon after. * January 20– 30 – Kuomintang in China holds ...

1925 Events January * January 1 ** The Syrian Federation is officially dissolved, the State of Aleppo and the State of Damascus having been replaced by the State of Syria. * January 3 – Benito Mussolini makes a pivotal speech in the Itali ...

, ''Livres des quatrains'' *

: ''La Brebis égarée'' *

–

''Les Quatrains'', in four volumes *

: ''Brindilles pour rallumer la foi'', Paris: Éditions Spes *

1926 Events January * January 3 – Theodoros Pangalos declares himself dictator in Greece. * January 8 **Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud is crowned King of Hejaz. ** Crown Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thuy ascends the throne, the last monarch of Viet ...

: ''Ma France poétique, Paris: Mercure de France *

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhan ...

: ''Diane'' *

1931 Events January * January 2 – South Dakota native Ernest Lawrence invents the cyclotron, used to accelerate particles to study nuclear physics. * January 4 – German pilot Elly Beinhorn begins her flight to Africa. * January 22 – Sir I ...

: ''L'Arc-en-ciel des amours'', Paris: Bloud et Gay * 1935: ''Alouette'' * 1935: ''De tout temps à jamais'', Paris: Gallimard *

1936 Events January–February * January 20 – George V of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India, dies at his Sandringham Estate. The Prince of Wales succeeds to the throne of the United Kingdom as King E ...

: ''Sources'', Paris: Le Divan *

1943 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 – WWII: The Soviet Union announces that 22 German divisions have been encircled at Stalingrad, with 175,000 killed and 137,650 captured. * January 4 ...

: ''Elégies et poésies diverses'' * 1946: ''La Grâce''

Prose

Each year links to its corresponding "

in literature" article: *

: ''Clara d'Ellébeuse; ou, L'Histoire d'une ancienne jeune fille'' *

: ''Almaïde d'Etremont; ou, L'Histoire d'une jeune fille passionée'' *

1903 Events January * January 1 – Edward VII is proclaimed Emperor of India. * January 19 – The first west–east transatlantic radio broadcast is made from the United States to England (the first east–west broadcast having bee ...

: ''Le Roman du lièvre'' *

1904 Events January * January 7 – The distress signal ''CQD'' is established, only to be replaced 2 years later by ''SOS''. * January 8 – The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library syst ...

: ''Pomme d'Anis; ou, L'Histoire d'une jeune fille infirme'' *

: ''Pensée des jardins'' *

1910 Events January * January 13 – The first public radio broadcast takes place; live performances of the operas '' Cavalleria rusticana'' and ''Pagliacci'' are sent out over the airwaves, from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York C ...

: ''Ma fille Bernadette'' *

: ''Le Rosaire au soleil'', Paris: Mercure de France * 1918: ''Monsieur le Curé d'Ozeron'' *

: ''Une vierge'', Paris: Édouard-Joseph *

: ''Le Noël de mes enfants'', Paris: Édouard-Joseph *

: ''La Rose à Marie'', Paris: Édouard-Joseph * 1920: ''Le Poète rustique'', Paris: Mercure de France * 1921: ''Le Bon Dieu chez les enfants'' * 1921: ''De l'âge divin à l'âge ingrat'', the first of three volumes of his memoirs, followed by ''L'Amour, les muses et la chasse'',

; ''Les Caprices du poète'',

* 1921: ''Le Livre de saint Joseph'', Paris: Plon-Nourrit *

: ''Le Poète et l'inspiration'', Nîmes, France: Gomès *

: ''Cloches pour deux mariages'', Paris: Mercure de France *

: ''Les Robinsons basques'' *

: ''Trente-six femmes'', Paris: Mercure de France *

: ''Basses-Pyrénées'', Paris: Émile-Paul *

1927 Events January * January 1 – The British Broadcasting ''Company'' becomes the British Broadcasting ''Corporation'', when its Royal Charter of incorporation takes effect. John Reith becomes the first Director-General. * January 7 ...

: ''Lavigerie'' *

: ''Janot-poète'' *

: ''Les Nuits qui me chantent'' *

: ''La Divine Douleur'' *

1930 Events January * January 15 – The Moon moves into its nearest point to Earth, called perigee, at the same time as its fullest phase of the Lunar Cycle. This is the closest moon distance at in recent history, and the next one will b ...

: ''Champétreries et méditations'' *

: ''Leçons poétiques'', Paris: Mercure de France *

1932 Events January * January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel. * January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort to assassinate Emperor Hiro ...

: ''L'Antigyde; ou, Elie de Nacre'' *

1934 Events January–February * January 1 – The International Telecommunication Union, a specialist agency of the League of Nations, is established. * January 15 – The 8.0 Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes Nepal and Bihar with a maxi ...

: ''Le Crucifix du poète'', Paris: M. deHartoy *

: ''Le Pèlerin de Lourdes'', Paris: Gallimard * 1938: ''La Légende de l'aile; ou, Marie-Elisabeth'' * 1941: ''Saint Louis; ou, L'Esprit de la Croisade'', Paris: F. Sorlot

References

External links