Francis Jammes

Francis Jammes (French pronunciation: ​[ʒam]; 2 December 1868, Tournay, Hautes-Pyrénées ; 1 November 1938, Hasparren, Pyrénées-Atlantiques) was a French poet. 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 "conversion" to Catholicism (more a return to the faith as he had always been a Catholic).

He was a mediocre student and failed his baccalauréat with a zero for French.

The young author's first poems began to be read in Parisian literary circles around 1895, and they were appreciated for their fresh tone which broke considerably from symbolist tendencies of the period. Jammes fraternised with other writers, including André Gide (with whom he travelled to Algeria in 1896), Stéphane Mallarmé and Henri de Régnier. 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; Le Deuil des Primevères ("The Mourning of Primulas") (1901) was also well received. While working up to that point as a notary's clerk, the author was thenceforth able to live from his writings. In 1905 Francis Jammes, influenced by the poet Paul Claudel with whom he became close, "converted" to Catholicism (in actuality a return to being a practicing Catholic) and his poetry became more austere and occasionally more dogmatic.

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